A new financial advisor should start at a place that will be supportive and patient with a startup, and wirehouses aren’t necessarily that.  I think (my opinion) what you are observing with SSB and ML is access to a highly sophisticated platform, which many ultra-high net worth clients require.

It sure is sad for our industry to measure Reps by AUM or fees or commissions! I am in the process of ACATing a client away from one of those guy's mentioned sold the client crap! But paid him a big commission!

Just because someone is a great salesman does not mean he is a good adviser!  

[quote=satpak77]

Looks like a large number of the "Top 50 Advisors" list are from Smith Barney or Merrill Lynch.  Didn't see Jones or AG Edwards on there.

Should a potential new financial advisor/stock broker focus on those two companies for career opportunities, and discard the others?

Comments, opinions?

THANKS

[/quote]

First, worry about surviving the first two years in the business.  Then, figure out to get in the Top 50.  You're like a kid playing pee-wee football who thinks he's ready for the NFL.  Good luck to you.

[quote=Greenbacks]

It sure is sad for our industry to measure Reps by AUM or fees or commissions! I am in the process of ACATing a client away from one of those guy's mentioned sold the client crap! But paid him a big commission!

Just because someone is a great salesman does not mean he is a good adviser!  

[/quote]

Couldn't have said it better.  If members of our industry focused more on taking care of the client, than increasing assets under management and generating big tickets, we wouldn't have such a poor reputation among professions.

satpak77

I guess you like to set your goals high.  Focus on learning the business.  After several years of honing your skills then maybe top 50 will be in reach.  Just remeber to treat all your clients like royalty and your aum will grow quickly. Good luck

Wouldn’t you say that if you have huge number of assets which leads to huge commissions or income, that you must be doing something right.  You have to do a good job giving clients a return for their money or you won’t have any assets to manage.  The financial advisors on the top 50 have done a great job.  Sure they are going to loose some clients from a rookie who promises them the world or because the million dollar client is now too small, but they wouldn’t be where they are for that many years if they didn’t get their clients’ the returns needed. DON’T MAKE EXCUSES INDYONE.

Help, I have no clue what you're talking about.  I'm not making excuses for anyone.  I just feel very strongly that there is much too much of a focus on AUM and commissions.  While I'll allow that there are many high volumn producers that got there by doing the right thing for the client, I've also had the joy of running into some multi-million dollar producers who sell nothing but VA's for example.  How these greedy bastards avoid major suitability issues and compliance problems is beyond me to be honest.

I've also worked with a million dollar producer that accomplished this year in and year out by churning customer accounts and discretionary trading accounts where he had no permission from the customer to do so.  Time and time again, I've seen sleazy advisors like this put up on a pedestal only to have these kind of practices later exposed.

Help, I don't think that having large production numbers automatically means that you are doing right by your client base.  I do believe that if you do right by your client base, good things will happen, and yes, sometimes that means that your numbers will rise to impressive levels.  At the same time, many advisors like me don't have any burning desire to produce a million dollars a year.  If it happens, great, but I won't sacrifice the quality of my customer service solely for the sake of generating big commission numbers.  If I can provide the level of service my clients expect, produce big commission totals, and fit it all into a 50-hour week, then by golly, I will.  But if something has to go, rest assured that the million dollar production level will be the first to go because I will not sacrifice customer service and I'm not going to work 80 hours a week...it's just not my thing.  If it's yours, more power to ya...have at it...