Financial professionals across the board want more support from their broker/dealers in the areas of acquisitions/ growth and succession planning. Among financial professionals who have changed broker/dealers in the last three years, 56% say they were dissatisfied with their previous broker/dealer’s level of support with regard to acquisitions and growth, and 49% say they were dissatisfied with their previous broker/dealer’s succession planning support.
In addition, many financial professionals aren’t completely satisfied with their current broker/dealers in these areas. Less than half say they are “extremely” or “very“ satisfied with their current broker/dealer’s levels of support with these issues—37% for acquisitions/growth and 46% for succession planning.
For individual financial professionals, the level of satisfaction with regard to growth issues largely depends on the firm’s size, aggressiveness and marketing sophistication. The more resources that go toward growth, the better equipped financial professionals are to expand their business.
However, in spite of the widespread dissatisfaction with growth and succession planning support, financial professionals rank these issues low on their list of considerations that drove them to leave their previous broker/dealer or might drive them to leave their current broker/dealer. For example, just 14% of respondents said dissatisfaction with succession planning alone would lead them to make a switch. These results indicate that while growth and succession planning support is a serious friction point for many financial professionals, it’s typically not a deal-breaker.