[quote=joedabrkr] [quote=ezmoney]I can't see how you're making it on your gross.[/quote]

What is your payout?
[/quote]

Regardless of payout, the question is how a guy who has been in the business for 17 years can be doing less than 200.

[quote=ezmoney]I can't see how you're making it on your gross.[/quote]

EZ...I'm netting almost 70% of my gross as an independent.  When I left the bank last summer, I was running about 350K and netting less than I do today...because I was getting about 35% of the gross.

I took my best clients and left many behind figuring that inside of five years I would have a much more efficient business.  Frankly, many that I left behind were CD whores, complainers and one-night stands.  About 60% of my revs are recurring.  I'd rather that number be about 80% but it takes time to build a predominantly fee-based business and you have to eat while you're building...

[quote=Knows Wall St.]

[quote=joedabrkr] [quote=ezmoney]I can’t see how you’re making it on your gross.[/quote]What is your payout?[/quote]

Regardless of payout, the question is how a guy who has been in the business for 17 years can be doing less than 200.

Wiz, I'm confident that I'll easily surpass my bank gross within five years.  The first year is naturally slower because of all of the transfer paperwork, learning a new platform, etc.  I think your friend's numbers are perhaps a bit skewed (perhaps because he headhunts for non-independent B/Ds), but if he's in the ballpark, it may have something to do with reps wanting to downshift a bit while maintaining their income level, and the fact that indies often have to deal with tasks related to running a business that they didn't have to deal with before.  I even have to order my own paperclips.

I'm honestly not sure why the average LPL rep's gross is relatively low, but I've hazarded a few guesses in the past...reps in the partners program that solely refer business and revenue share...licensed assistants, etc.  All I know is that there were close to 100 million dollar producers in the firm last year, so no doubt the firm is capable of supporting mega-producers.  The fact that they've allowed small producers to work with the platform doesn't have any bearing on my success as far as I can tell.

The longer you're in this business, the more you'll come to realize that it's not all about the money once you are making a comfortable living...it becomes about the quality of your life.  I work 40 hour weeks and make about 10K/month, which supports a good quality of life here in the midwest.  I'll naturally make more going forward, but I don't feel a burning pressure to constantly increase my production to survive.

Indy,



A couple of questions for you:



How much of that $10k is recurring revenue?



Do you have an assistant?



If not, do you think you’ll have one in 5 years?

About 70% of my revs are recurring and I have a part-time assistant.  She costs me on average $1,500/month…trending toward $2,000/month as my production is trending toward $20K/month.  She costs me about 10% of my monthly gross and is my single largest expense, but she’s worth every penny I pay her and I expect that 10% figure to drop as my production recovers from the move…

So when your assistant is not there, you are answering your own phone? What about when you are in an appointment? What about when you are taking a CPA to lunch? Have you ever called your doctor’s office and the docter answered? This will encourage your HNW to refer their friends. Yeah right?





70% are recurring, what do you do in the office for 40 hours each week? Silly me, you have 1153 posts, I know.

Oh my gosh, heaven forbid a client leave a voice mail message. I wouldn’t

equate KYC with medical school there, Wizzy. Wow, at Edward Jones, they

have people sit and wait for the phone to ring…cool. And all those new

people that last 6 months are working every second they’re in the office.

Edward Jones is the best…everyone should work there. You must be like the

wizard in that movie about Oz. Obviously some people think the higher

payout is the salvation, which it is not if you don’t have a growing business.

But having control of your expenses is meaningful because you can hire

TWO full time assistants if you want, and not wait for someone to say you

can. So two people can take messages at the same time! And you may have

that new fangled email thing by now, so eventually you see that is an

efficiency tool when used properly.

[quote=The Wizard] [quote=Knows Wall St.]

[quote=joedabrkr] [quote=ezmoney]I can’t see how you’re making it on your gross.[/quote]What is your payout?[/quote]

Regardless of payout, the question is how a guy who has been in the business for 17 years can be doing less than 200.

She's always there...just works for the accountants the rest of the time.  When she's at lunch, the accountant's people answer my phone.  As far as HNW clients, my average has been steadily climbing since I left the bank and purged a lot of time-wasting clients from my book.

As far as what I do with all my time, I do a little accounting work (which I'm seriously considering giving up), I spend a fair amount of time earning those recurring revenues, I do some transactional work, community involvement (currently running the local United Way campaign) and I do some prospecting.  Sure, I average about 3 posts/day...some days more, some less.  This doesn't take much time and I try to post useful information and give something positive to the online community.  You could learn from that.

Given the hostility of your posts, I'm done responding to you on the off chance that you're yet another reincarnation of the old VP of paperclips.  If you're not, you might want to tone it down a bit...I don't require your approval to live a satisfying life...get over yourself.

Cowboy93,

It’s investment reps like you, and your firms, that think an assistant “just sits there and waits for the phone to ring” that keep Edward Jones at the TOP of the client satifaction surveys. Next time we are at the top of a survey and someone says “Oh they rig the surveys, oh they have no HNW clients, oh their clients are small potatoes…” I will refer forum readers and writers to your above post.



When you think you are the smartest person in the room Mr. Fastow, maybe you are not.

Joe Da Broker wrote:

As Indyone has implied, there are many ‘non-traditional’ reps in the LPL system, and each gets a rep number and counted into that headcount.



*Every CPA “partner” is assigned a rep number and counted amongst that total.

*Every licensed sales assistant as well. He/She is getting a salary, and then perhaps picking up some production with a joint number under their rep.

*I know personally of a TPA who has affiliated with an LPL rep, and picks up about 100k on “orphan” 401k’s. Not big business compared to a wirehouse rep, but nice supplemental income for him, and a little bit of extra income to his OSJ supervisor.

*Semi-retired advisors transitioning their book to another under a joint production number.

*junior advisors also get their own broker number and go into the headcount.



Most of the reps I know who are serious full time advisors are doing north of 200k, most of them well above that figure. But the average is skewed by others.



--------------------------------

Joe,

So are you saying that LPL really hasn’t grown as much as their published numbers? They are counting the TPA next door in their numbers? That’s interesting.



“Anything to get the value of the company up so we can take it public Bob.”

Wow…I wonder what witty response I’ll get…

Indyone wrote:



…"I don’t require your approval to live a satisfying life…"



Indyone, that’s just it, this board is your life. And if you don’t want everyone’s approval what’s up with all the posts? You just couldn’t wait for my reply and had to post a “Hey, I’m waiting for your approval.” post.



The word is not witty, it’s pitty.

Hey Joe…I think we’ve got another mensa candidate…

[quote=The Wizard]Joe Da Broker wrote:

As Indyone has implied, there are many ‘non-traditional’ reps in the LPL system, and each gets a rep number and counted into that headcount.



*Every CPA “partner” is assigned a rep number and counted amongst that total.

*Every licensed sales assistant as well. He/She is getting a salary, and then perhaps picking up some production with a joint number under their rep.

*I know personally of a TPA who has affiliated with an LPL rep, and picks up about 100k on “orphan” 401k’s. Not big business compared to a wirehouse rep, but nice supplemental income for him, and a little bit of extra income to his OSJ supervisor.

*Semi-retired advisors transitioning their book to another under a joint production number.

*junior advisors also get their own broker number and go into the headcount.



Most of the reps I know who are serious full time advisors are doing north of 200k, most of them well above that figure. But the average is skewed by others.



--------------------------------

Joe,

So are you saying that LPL really hasn’t grown as much as their published numbers? They are counting the TPA next door in their numbers? That’s interesting.



“Anything to get the value of the company up so we can take it public Bob.”

[/quote]

Frankly, I neither know nor care if LPL has grown as much as their published numbers.  It makes absolutely no difference to me.

What matters to me is that their technology works and their service continues to be robust, and that they keep their noses clean.

If they don’t, the reality is that I own my business under the terms of my contract, and I operate under my own brand name.  So, while it would be inconvenient, I could always fire LPL and move my business to another B/D if they at some point failed to deliver on any of the above.  There might be some client attrition, but nothing like moving from wire-wire, bank-wire, Jones-Wire, or others.

"Mr. Client, after much consideration I have decided that my clients interests would be better served for reasons X,Y, & Z if joedabrkr & co was to fire LPL and custody assets and execute transactions in the future with b/d XYZ Inc.  You can continue to work with me in the manner to which you’ve been accustomed, you reach me at the same phone number, and find me at the same office.  None of that changes.  All we’re really doing is deciding that the hamburger at the McDonalds on the West side of town is offered on slightly better terms than the hamburger on the East side of town. I’ll have the paperwork on your desk tomorrow."

And meanwhile my b/d is not allowed to contact clients for about 30 days under the terms of my contract.

Ironically, I think it’s this very competition among indy b/d’s, as well as LPL’s culture and understanding of this competition, that will keep them honest and focussed on delivering the best possible value and service to their reps.  I’m not being naive.  I just think management is smart enough to understand the playing field, and that their best bet on the future is to leverage their scale to offer the best platform for their reps.  That simple.  So it would be my hope and expectation that I’m at LPL for the very long term.  But if it doesn’t work out that way, I have an exit strategy that offers me many options.  "Begin with the end in mind."

Try to find that attitude at your local Smith Barney Rubble office, or Mother Merrill.

What is curious, if it's true that LPL assigns producer numbers to registered support people, is the way the important numbers are affected.

It is possible to conclude that the number of producing reps is actually closer to half of the published numbers if registered sales assistants are being counted.

Why would they do that?  Why would they intentionally understand important numbers like "average assets under management" and "average gross revenue per representative"

A cynic might conclude that the reason is so that they can claim to have the most reps since they can't claim to have the most assets, highest average or be on top of any of the other benchmarks.

What's the saying?  Figures never lie, but liars always figure?  Something like that.

Wasn't that funny how Joe called Smith Barny, Smith Barney Rubble?  Gotta love that mature adult humor.

Wizzy…just post a link to the Jones recruiting website and be done with it.

Geez. I think everyone knows that Jones is the only place to be ethical and

successful. Everyone else is a bunch of crooks, and NONE of their clients are

satisfied…that’s why Jones has the highest avg AUM/advisor (er, rep) I

guess…



A new advisor (I’m sorry, represntative) simply doesn’t require full time help

to service their clients, because they have none.

[quote=Knows Wall St.]

What is curious, if it’s true that LPL assigns producer numbers to registered support people, is the way the important numbers are affected.

It is possible to conclude that the number of producing reps is actually closer to half of the published numbers if registered sales assistants are being counted.

Why would they do that?  Why would they intentionally understand important numbers like "average assets under management" and "average gross revenue per representative"

A cynic might conclude that the reason is so that they can claim to have the most reps since they can't claim to have the most assets, highest average or be on top of any of the other benchmarks.

What's the saying?  Figures never lie, but liars always figure?  Something like that.

Wasn't that funny how Joe called Smith Barny, Smith Barney Rubble?  Gotta love that mature adult humor.

[quote=Cowboy93]Wizzy...just post a link to the Jones recruiting website and be done with it. Geez. I think everyone knows that Jones is the only place to be ethical and successful. Everyone else is a bunch of crooks, and NONE of their clients are satisfied..that's why Jones has the highest avg AUM/advisor (er, rep) I guess...

A new advisor (I'm sorry, represntative) simply doesn't require full time help to service their clients, because they have none.[/quote]

The Kool-Aid is flowing so thick, I can't decide if Wizzy is a new rep that's swallowed his RL's take on independents and is faithfully regurgitating it, or Holder with another pseudonym.  At any rate, it's the same old tired Jones spin on independents designed to keep the troops chugging that special juice.  I wonder if he's done any research on the numbers of Jones reps who've come from Raymond James and LPL to Jones vs. the number that has left Jones for those firms.  A logical person would almost have to conclude that RJ & LPL perhaps aren't quite so evil if successful Jones reps are moving to them in meaningful numbers and there's not but a trickle, if that, coming the other way.  More likely, he just takes what his leaders tell him as the unbiased truth.  That's his perogative as is working at Jones, but that doesn't make life as an independent any less fulfilling for me.  Ride on, Cowboy...