Need a Script

Just pump your fist and say "HIIIIIIIYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"  Oh, wait...that's HOWARD Dean...

How about "I've left my firm and wanted you to know that I've formed Deaniac Investment Management.  I'm in an office at 111 Main Street and my new number is 867-5309.  I've enjoyed working with you and wanted you to know where I was so you could reach me if you needed anything."  If the client gives you an opening, like asking what happens to their account, you can always add "Certainly you are welcome to stay at brand X, but I wanted you to know that I am still working as an investment advisor and you have alternatives."  Any client worth taking can figure out at that point that all they have to do to move is ask.

Depending on what your non-compete/non-solicit says, even that it probably pushing it.  I didn't even say that much...only that I'd left and my new number was XXX-XXXX.  Your A clients will ask to move at that point if you've done your job while at brand X.

As always, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, so don't do any of this without consulting legal counsel.

Welcome to the jungle...

Wow Indyone, I've never seen anyone be that relaxed about it.  Here is just a few things clients have told me about their contact w/ their former FA.  By the way, everytime I've seen an FA quit, they do it on a Friday afternoon and their clients have ACATS forms on Saturday morning. I do not know the legal ramifications of any of this though, so contact a lawyer.

"Brand X was pushing products, I can be more objective and independent here"

"I will own my practice here"

"Brand X kept raising their fees and commissions to levels that I was't comfortable with, so moving to me will lower your fees"

"All the problems we've had were all Brand X's fault because of their policies and procedures.  They just weren't flexible"

"Now that my team is gone, Brand X will probably close the local office and your account will be handled by office 123 that's 100 miles away"

"Brand X just wouldn't let me do business my way."

I basically took the same tactics as Indyone.  I didn't want to get into trouble with my prior B/D and on advice of my lawyer my letter to previous clients contained information only about where I was now and how to contact me.  No overt solicitation to leave the other company and DO NOT send ACAT forms with the informative letter.

However, when the clients called me or showed interest when I was talking to them then I used the iconsult method.  I especially stressed that as an independent I would not be forced to make an artificial quota set by some "corporate suit" in another part of the country.   That resonates very well with my clients as we are in an area of the country that tends to be very independent minded when it comes to governmental control and big brother telling us what to do. 

The clients figure out very quickly that quota = churning. 

Indy is right on in that your good clients will immediately come with you if you have done a good job in building relationships with them and in managing their portfolios.

All good points.  I also was truthful about why I left when asked.  I didn’t necessarily go negative on my ex-firm…the truth was more than adequate and included some of the points mentioned by iconsult, particularly the fact that I wasn’t allowed to use some investment alternatives that I thought would be very beneficial for clients.

It sounds like you guys have more integrity than my former co-workers. 

Here's how I hammer your book when you are leaving:

Did he discuss his compensation reasons for leaving?

Where is he going to get his research now?

Who watches his trades?

A lot of indies work from home. Is he going to be working part time, or full time?

Let me take a guess, all of a sudden your investment strategy needs changed, basically because he changed firms?

Deaniac, too bad I wasn't allowed to hammer your book.

Did he discuss his compensation reasons for leaving?

Yes.  He told me that since he wasn't paying for multi-million dollar GP salaries, he could make the same living without having to generate high levels of commissions and trades.  It sounds like I'll get much better service since he's not having to constantly hustle for more and more new clients to satisfy the agenda of some greedy supervisor.

Where is he going to get his research now?

He's able to get independent stock research from firms like S&P, and Wall Street research from firms like Credit Suisse First Boston, which has consistently ranked higher than the research he had at his old firm.

Who watches his trades?

I suppose the same type of compliance people that reviewed trades at his old office.  I trust him and don't really worry about that because he's always been open and honest with me.

A lot of indies work from home. Is he going to be working part time, or full time?

I don't understand what you're talking about.  I've been to his new office and it's much nicer than his old one.  Better yet, it doesn't smell like meatball subs.

Let me take a guess, all of a sudden your investment strategy needs changed, basically because he changed firms?

As a matter of fact, it has.  He's taking me completely off commissions.  Now when he calls, we can talk about portfolio strategy instead of me having to always fend off the bond of the week.

You're not dealing with very sophisticated competition if that crap is working for you.  The local Jonsers went together and ran ads when I left saying crap like "Has your advisor changed firms recently?  Now may be a great time to take a look at Edward Jones."  In the nine months since I left. they netted one client with a total of $80,000...and he's since spoken with me to tell me that he's sorry he made the switch.

If that's all you've got, you sure wouldn't hammer my book.

#1. Jones sells 2 products and I can now sell X

#2. Jones ethics have taken a turn for the worse. Mention the 350 or so

that are milking 70% off of the top. Mention the $200+ million in revenue

sharing for pushing inferior funds.





That is all you need.

It doesn't matter who comes in to "hammer" your book.  Just be cool--and have a plan and you get more than enough of your clients to come with you.

I'd focus on how the new firm has so much more than what you had before...treat it as a promotion in your career--as the next logical step for you with you and your clientsn both benefitting.  It's cake.

[quote=rankstocks]

Here's how I hammer your book when you are leaving:

Did he discuss his compensation reasons for leaving?

Where is he going to get his research now?

Who watches his trades?

A lot of indies work from home. Is he going to be working part time, or full time?

Let me take a guess, all of a sudden your investment strategy needs changed, basically because he changed firms?

Deaniac, too bad I wasn't allowed to hammer your book.

[/quote]

More often than not the "hammer job" that the Jones rep does to your clients will backfire on him.  When I left 18 months ago I had some hot shot IR who thought he would do the same.  Big mistake.  I ended up with 90% of my assets.  The new IR made a complete idiot of himself, lying to some of my best clients that clearly knew better. 

Rankstocks, if you have any experience in this business you should know better.  Total bush league!

My “replacement” tried to “hammer” my book also.  I think he hammers nails into 2x4’s somewhere now.  3 months he lasted.  What an idiot…to challenge the mighty ZACKO!

Deaniac....We used same "plan of attack" as Indyone & iconsult100...except when we left Friday we:

Changed the voice mail message to announce a monthly workshop w/ date, time, place. (we knew it would take a few days for TR broker to figure out how to get msgs)

Sent out very BLAH letter. "Dear Clients & Friends, I am pleased to announce...etc" then on Saturday we began calling & setting appointments, signing ACAT forms.

[quote=rankstocks]

Here's how I hammer your book when you are leaving:

Did he discuss his compensation reasons for leaving?

Where is he going to get his research now?

Who watches his trades?

We have compliance, same as you. In addition there is a series 24.

A lot of indies work from home. Is he going to be working part time, or full time?

If memory serves, Jones IR's start out from home as well, no?

Let me take a guess, all of a sudden your investment strategy needs changed, basically because he changed firms?

I know at least in our case, the answer to the above is...no. As we told all of our clients, "they were good investments when you bought them, they still are today. We have enjoyed working with you over the years and would like to continue to do so."

Deaniac, too bad I wasn't allowed to hammer your book.

Here's how I hammer your book when you are leaving:

Did he discuss his compensation reasons for leaving?

Where is he going to get his research now?

Who watches his trades?

A lot of indies work from home. Is he going to be working part time, or full time?

Let me take a guess, all of a sudden your investment strategy needs changed, basically because he changed firms?

Deaniac, too bad I wasn't allowed to hammer your book.

RANK-

Are you one of those lower life forms that suck-up to the Regional Leader and start sniveling for assets the minute you hear someone left- instead of trying to RECRUIT an experienced broker? You mean you would like to lick the boots of the Leadership Team to get a few assets added to your miserable book instead of WORK for it yourself?

I thought you were a TRUE JONES person? You never tried to RECRUIT?

Noobs like you always made me puke.

[quote=The Truth] #1. Jones sells 2 products and I can now sell X

#2. Jones ethics have taken a turn for the worse. Mention the 350 or so

that are milking 70% off of the top. Mention the $200+ million in revenue

sharing for pushing inferior funds.





That is all you need. [/quote]

While you’re at it, mention the fact that you are doing this for your own personal financial reasons, not theirs. You can say all you want that you have more options than at Jones, but you are leaving for your own financial gain. Period.

That may be for some, but it wasn't why I left (and went six weeks without a paycheck).  Sure, I figured that eventually, I'd probably make more money, but that was far from the reason I decided to move on.  I left for the freedom to run my business the way I felt it should be ran without interference from bankers who didn't understand my business and who were more interested in the bottom line than the welfare of my clients.

Just wondering what is wrong for leaving for more money. I see nothing wrong as long as the customer isn't impacted or at least understands. Hulkster, I used to believe the crap the EDJ management would tell us about fee based/money management programs. Now they are starting to embrace (at the usual snails pace) MAP and who knows maybe they will be forced to rethink their recurring revenue streams in the future.

At least we should be able to build a fee based biz so that we can relax and plan rather than sweat it out every month. How is that good for the client if we are constantly concerned about our monthly nut. It certainly isn't good for us to start every month at zero.

It has always been reinforced that there is only one customer. At EDJ it is the GP. I find it ironic that we are criticized for doing the same thing as the GP's, looking out for our own families. I ask the question what the hell is wrong with that?

While you're at it, mention the fact that you are doing this for your own personal financial reasons, not theirs. You can say all you want that you have more options than at Jones, but you are leaving for your own financial gain. Period.

There is no period about it, only in your little black and white world. 

Yes, I left so I could actually make more money. Ooooh aaaaah.  As if you are running a charitable business at EDJ. You don't care about making a living there do you?  Of course not.  All you guys wear those halos so well.  Sanctimonious pricks.

As Indyone put it very accurately. I can make more money by doing less. Less trading and "repositioning" (scare quotes) of client's accounts. Less reliance on the commission treadmill and more ability to actually service the clients that I have.  Sure I make more money NOW, but I spent about 20K to set up my office, advertise, get new sales materials reflecting my DBA. 

Money wasn't the motivating factor for me. I just wanted to get away from the EDJ compound and be able to run my business MY way.  Again, in your little black and white world, I'm sure you assume I mean that my way is free wheeling without any compliance and that I am selling......cue the evil music.......Equity Indexed Annuities.  Far from it.  I am able to offer more investment products, have better and more research than the proprietary EDJ research, access to better life and long term care products, option trading, fee accounts, far far better technology and so on.  The compliance department is more thorough than that at Jones.

So you can just get down off of that imaginary high horse and realize that there are many other reasons than just being able to make more money to leave Jones.  It is being able to make a better living. It is being able to enjoy my life again and being able to better help my clients.

[quote=Incredible Hulk] [quote=The Truth] #1. Jones sells 2 products and I can now sell X
#2. Jones ethics have taken a turn for the worse. Mention the 350 or so
that are milking 70% off of the top. Mention the $200+ million in revenue
sharing for pushing inferior funds.


That is all you need. [/quote]
While you're at it, mention the fact that you are doing this for your own personal financial reasons, not theirs. You can say all you want that you have more options than at Jones, but you are leaving for your own financial gain. Period.[/quote]

Again I can only speak for ourselves here, BUT...What is so wrong about wanting to make more money? At Jones, don't you strive everymonth to have another BME? How many FA's do you see living in  homeless shelters? We aren't running a not-for-profit here.

We were honest with our clients about leaving and told them we would stand to make more money and want to know what? The positive response was overwhelming! Especially from self-employed clients, who can relate to "owning YOUR OWN business". In fact one client's exact response was - "THAT'S what I wanted to know, I would hate to think you would go through all this hassle, without standing to gain financially from it...where do I sign?"

Devoted SA,

At first, I was scared to tell my clients that I was going to get a pay increase.  But when I started telling them, I experienced the same thing you did.  They kept saying, "that's great, where do I sign."  The CPA's who refer business to me were elated.  I was one of them now. 

zactly! That's what I'm sayin. Another comment from a client after the transition...

"I was wondering how long it was going to take before you'd get tired of workin for the man. I'm proud of you."

Really, really great to hear that kind of support from clients.

I know, I know, all indys are the best thing since sliced bread.  Keep telling yourself that.  Zacko seems to think RJ is the greatest thing since Trump Casino bonds that I keep seeing in RJ statements.  You indies might as well put on a red pitcher suit and jump through a brick wall.    If you indys are not tipping back the kool-aid, why the constant barrage of LPL or RJ or whatever chop shop is better at this, better at that.  It sounds like Zacko and his ilk are continuing the same type of garbage they learned at Jones.

    Actions speak louder than words, and Zacko is a windbag.  I have yet to see a post from him acknowledging RJ's shortcomings. 

    Let's take this little RJ test again, and see what happens.

    1. RJ branches at a bank, can't get much lower than that..

    2. # of reps basically flat last year

    3.  53% of RJ reps GROSS less than 100k

    4.  lesser known name, when have you seen an RJ add?

    5.  Dennis Herula Scandal.

    6.  RJ wrap program, 12b-1's on top of wrap fees, fined.

    7.  RJ failing to give breakpoints on A-shares (13 million $ fine).

    8.  Late trading problems.

    9.  Moving to class A share annuities because of improprieties in the past

   10.  Couldn't hire last year because of non-compliance.

Oh how the mighty fall with just a little research.  Looks like a little angel just pissed in your cheerios.

Rank,

You are so clueless...you make me laugh.  Your lack of knowledge about the industry combined with your overall lack of intelligence bleeds through with almost every post you make. 

I have never touted RJ as being the best thing since "sliced bread"  I have only said they are a solid indy firm, I like being there and YES-THEY ARE MUCH BETTER THAN EDWARD JONES.

1. RJ FID (Finacial institutions division) are at banks.  Yes they are.  They are a seperate division that affiliate with banks.  So what?

2. RJ let go many of the smaller producer who where BM's.  They raised minimums on prod.  With about 3000 indy brokers, RJFS still has more million dollar producers than Jones.  So does LPL by the way...what's your point?

3. Many employees of branch managers at indy branches are series 7 licensed.  Remember...like you--they work for someone else. 

Forget it man...I'm not going to waste my time addressing your ridiculous and totally innaccurate posts.  RJ doesn't even have A share annuities by the way--nor are they moving to them. 

The sad truth is you represent yourself and your firm so poorly and you have almost no idea what you are talking about.  It's a wonder even Edward Jones would hire you.

Rank,

Ditto what Zacko says, plus this:

One of the big differences between Zacko and Indyone vs. you (and ButtKiss, and some others here) is that we acknowledge that our firms are not perfect.  You seem to have a problem with that and like to attack other firms vs. acknowledging the shortcomings at your own.

As far as the production issue goes, that's more of a freedom issue.  RJ & LPL don't pressure indy reps (can't speak to the EMPLOYEE channels) to reach production goals, other than the minimum level of production to run your own OSJ office.  LPL has a $125K minimum and RJ's is $200K (at least it was when I looked at them last spring).

You need to get over this bank rep issue.  I went head to head with the local Jonsers while at a bank and beat them much more often than I lost to them.  Without even trying, I took ten times the number of accounts away from them than what they took from me.  Again, it's the rep more so than the company/platform.

As far as poking at the investments you see on competitor's statements, you're again throwing stones while living in a glass house.  I cannot begin to tell you how many times I've seen, oh, for instance, GM bonds with 20+ year maturities on EDJ statements.  Those bonds are now trading at about 60 cents on the dollar, so don't go getting all pious about Trump Casino bonds when I had family members with Energy Management bonds back in the 80's on their Jones statements.  The only money those folks ever saw on those bonds was from a class action lawsuit that Jones settled for about a nickel on each dollar.

Why don't you conduct a study regarding the number of reps and aggregate production that has left Edward Jones to go independent vs. the number and aggregate production that that left independence to work for Edward Jones?  Interestingly enough, I know for a fact that a Jones rep with more than ten years at Jones recently wanted to come over to LPL and was politely turned down.  Given your lack of intelligence, no doubt you would also be turned down, so keep drinking the Kool-Aid and hope Jones doesn't see their mistake and give your client list to the other local Jonesers.

Someone years ago gave some sage advice that you should heed:

It is better to be quiet and have others think you are an idiot, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

rankstocks

You're being a little hard on Zacko and the others, I don't think they tout more than the usual self-pride and the nature of this business conditions people about their decisions.

They've pointed out the wholes in independence and many have been candid on their dealers.

It is a trade site isn't it?

Some people have PM me to tell me to stop "trashing RJ on the annuity issues" so I'll give a little back to RJ here by rebutting this lame list above;

Let's take this little RJ test again, and see what happens.

    1. RJ branches at a bank, can't get much lower than that..

Plenty of dealers have bank contracts, SB and LPL and many other types. It's business and what's wrong with it for such a universal complaint?

    2. # of reps basically flat last year

The industry is mostly flat. RJ has been raising production requirements, what do you think happens to a sales count when that happens?

    3.  53% of RJ reps GROSS less than 100k

This is false, where did you get this stat? Try a link.

    4.  lesser known name, when have you seen an RJ add?

All the time on cable channels all over the country as one example. You could debate benefits but your claim is false.

    5.  Dennis Herula Scandal.

It's nice that you a producer would use a singular event (avoiding the complications) to label the entire firm and people in it. You might do better at a news network or a government agency.

    6.  RJ wrap program, 12b-1's on top of wrap fees, fined.

Plenty on this boat as well. They deserved it here but where is this perfect firm you work for?

    7.  RJ failing to give breakpoints on A-shares (13 million $ fine).

Another large ocean cruise event with many on board. You might consider the regulatory excess involved on some of these talking points.

    8.  Late trading problems.

What virgin like firm do you come from again? How could you single on RJ for some of this stuff?

    9.  Moving to class A share annuities because of improprieties in the past

Do you have a link to back up this relationship? I've looked hard but see no direct relationship. I've clearly harped on the particulars of this but haven't tarred everything about the firm in the process.

   10.  Couldn't hire last year because of non-compliance.

That judge in RI? How long did that judicial overreach last? I think you've distorted reality on many of your points.

Oh how the mighty fall with just a little research.  Looks like a little angel just pissed in your cheerios.

Some points are close to accurate but there is plenty of excess in your list. You shouldn't let your insecurities about your personal career decisions move you into blaming others. Nothing is perfect but independent firms generally have something to offer the everyday broker who usually get very little from their larger firms as a rule.  

If you want to go after RJ try sticking to concise facts not superficial sound bites. Flaws and all they deserve better than the weak statement list you made.

Rankstocks claimed;    3.  53% of RJ reps GROSS less than 100k

http://www.financial-planning.com/cgi-bin/bdconnect-profile. pl?rank=1&rank=1&x=26&y=12&comparisons=56

Looks like 68% are over 100k on payout, what do you think that says about gross?

http://www.financial-planning.com/cgi-bin/bdconnect.pl?table =reps_and_production_2&default=no

If you look at the whole segment RJFS look very strong on meeting a minimum.

Plenty on these firms are apples and oranges by the way. If you're an insurance guy or an RIA it might impact your decisions for example. I just wanted to refute the false statement made. 

Rank,

Your just a bitter low level producer whose only understanding of the industry has come from "Jones Book of Facts".  Open your eyes drone...you are lost.

Looks like I hit a nerve (make that several nerves).  Sorry to burst your indy bubbles, but I haven't seen such sorry responses in quite a while, rather amusing.  Way to attack me personally, it shows the level of maturity I'm dealing with.  Zacho, keep putting on that red pitcher and jumping through brick walls about how independent you are.  I'll make a bet with you that you will be switching firms within 5 years.  Care to take me up on it?

Rank-



I don’t think the responses were intentionally trying to strike your nerve. But

the problem is your are just not very bright. You firm is one of the most

unethical firms still left. People that worked there and moved on are all

saying this. If you would just be honest with yourself and see the light, you

will see what Jones pushes is not in the best interest of your clients.



An American Fund is not always the solution. Variable annuities for 401K

rollovers are not always the best answer. By the way this happens far too

often at your firm.