So as far as we (WS) know, Danny and David are taking their retention proposal to WFC this monday, Dec 1st.  WFC will then digest the plan, and we hope to hear something by mid Dec.  Anybody hearing the same thing or something different?? (Ferris, I clearly stole your “hijack” line, hope you don’t mind).

Hey Fritz, thanks for reminding us.  I hope Santa takes a dump down your chimney.

[quote=duster10]So as far as we (WS) know, Danny and David are taking their retention proposal to WFC this monday, Dec 1st.  WFC will then digest the plan, and we hope to hear something by mid Dec.  Anybody hearing the same thing or something different?? (Ferris, I clearly stole your “hijack” line, hope you don’t mind).

[quote=fritz][quote=duster10]So as far as we (WS) know, Danny and David are taking their retention proposal to WFC this monday, Dec 1st.  WFC will then digest the plan, and we hope to hear something by mid Dec.  Anybody hearing the same thing or something different?? (Ferris, I clearly stole your “hijack” line, hope you don’t mind).

You think Danny and Bob got the 'soon to be fired' letter?

What happens if an FA has to declare BK?? I can see that as becoming more problematic.

What happens if an FA has to declare BK?? I can see that as becoming more problematic.

being behind on a 3mm mortgage when you did 750k and dropped to 300k?
I don’t feel the least bit sorry for that dude.
part of being an advisor is to not only implement solutions for clients but to educate them about the dangers of leverage and concentrations in one asset class (like real estate).
duh!

There will be a lot of BK’s by FA’s. This biz is a bitch to survive in. Some of us had to use equity to survive the 2001 to 2003 period. I did. And many here did also. There was no other option. My production is good now, over 500k. But in the northeast, as the sole provider for 4, that aint major bucks. I have blue collar clients making as much as me in their union jobs. Guys wont admit it but thats the real reason why the retention is so important to many. Its a lifeline to make it through this down cycle. Without it many of us will be toast. The home equity is gone. The credit cards are maxed out or have had limits drastically reduced. Im not talking about supporting extravagant living either. Reasonable mortgage, utils, cars, gas, food, clothes, insurance, etc etc. Before you know it the paycheck is gone. Spent just to pay your bills with nothing left over but more bills. There is an awful lot of FA’s wondering how the heck they will survive the business next year. At least a retention will give many of us a fighting chance. 

[quote=3rd ID]There will be a lot of BK’s by FA’s. This biz is a bitch to survive in. Some of us had to use equity to survive the 2001 to 2003 period. I did. And many here did also. There was no other option. My production is good now, over 500k. But in the northeast, as the sole provider for 4, that aint major bucks. I have blue collar clients making as much as me in their union jobs. Guys wont admit it but thats the real reason why the retention is so important to many. Its a lifeline to make it through this down cycle. Without it many of us will be toast. The home equity is gone. The credit cards are maxed out or have had limits drastically reduced. Im not talking about supporting extravagant living either. Reasonable mortgage, utils, cars, gas, food, clothes, insurance, etc etc. Before you know it the paycheck is gone. Spent just to pay your bills with nothing left over but more bills. There is an awful lot of FA’s wondering how the heck they will survive the business next year. At least a retention will give many of us a fighting chance. 
[/quote]

100% honest perfect post…I am in the same boat, the gross sounds great, but by the time it gets sliced into the check its not much if you have a house and family in most areas of the country.  Being in the west, the gross most of us looking at, if you have a family and mortgage it is gone quick…With most non dillusional people seeing a tough tough period for 2009 at the very least, I see lots of guys in big trouble.  And also like you say that is why people are so interested in retention here, not 44,000 views out of being curious.  Many guys need the retention to ride it out…

Fritz wrote:
There will be a lot of BK’s by FA’s. This biz is a bitch to survive in.
Some of us had to use equity to survive the 2001 to 2003 period. I did.
And many here did also. There was no other option. My production is
good now, over 500k. But in the northeast, as the sole provider for 4,
that aint major bucks. I have blue collar clients making as much as me
in their union jobs. Guys wont admit it but thats the real reason why
the retention is so important to many. Its a lifeline to make it
through this down cycle…

Hey, there’s no better reason to go back to work.  We got fat and happy in a good market, this type of miserable market is acutally the reality.  We had 92, 93, 97, 98, 2004, 05, and 06 as good years.  Everything else basically sucked.  So next time you make $230,000 live like your making $50,000 a year.

Don’t forget that making over $153,583 means you are among the top 5% of income earners in the nation.  Imagine how it feels for everyone else!  And, you’d have to be in an extremely good union to make that type of money. 

Next time around - keep everything in cash and live within 1/2 your means.  Other people do.  Imagine the guys that got deals and threw it all into the market!  Or company stock! And you could have had your book run by Madoff or purchased a fund of funds!   You could also take a deal now and find yourself back in this situation in 4 more years.

So, I’d just use this as an excuse to work like you did when you first started.  That’s been my approach anyway.  There’s opportunity in change and we’ve sure had change.  I’d find something new to recommend and recommend it!  Don’t look back - look forward.

Apparently Well is running the show on the retention announcement - perhaps mid January now.  Still it’s the best payout of any major wirehouse.  And you know all the surprises have been announced here - who knows what comes next at other firms.

And in my opinion you can’t afford to go bankrupt.  You’d have to disclose it until your 95! Who would hire a bankrupt financial advisor?  You just have to work your way out of the hole - I’m sure you’ve done it before. 

I think the new name of the game is to pay everything off and hold plenty of liquidity for the future.  I think old timers knew that was the name of the game all along - we’re just catching on now. 

Nice post …totally agree. 20 years in the biz

Well I agree with the pay off everything and plenty of liquidity in the future statement for sure. Problem is our clients all want liquidity too and liquidity does not pay an FA’s salary. January 08 I recommended to clients that the mkt was going to get hammered and that we should go to cash, cd’s a little gold exposure etc. Did this in Assett Adviser. The gold bit me a little but the exposure was very minimal. For the most part I saved the clients between 25 and 50% losses in the mgd accts they were in. Now guess what? The firm wants to close the accts because their isnt enough activity to warrant the fee.!!! I saved the people a TON and the company is sending letters suggesting they are not getting max value out of the acct. YOU CANNOT WIN>!!!Any how Merry Christmas. No, Im not scrooge on here with nothing else to do LOL. Just have a few minutes while waiting for the prime rib to cool down for slicing. I cook the potatoes and meats and wife takes care of everything else. 

For those of you who have been on vacation, you may not have seen that they (WS) are changing the compensation for Variable Annuities effective jan 5th for ISG.  Looks like EVERYTHING will trail starting the 5th, but the big change is that a L Share no longer pays 3.25% with a trail in the 13th, it now pays 2.75% with the same trail.  I guess this is a big deal due to the fact that probably 70% of ISG annuity business is L share like this, and we now get an additional 20% over the haircut we were taking before…awesome.

Trim here, Trim there… They will get everything cut down so far that they will only have us 1mm+ producers and then pay us 100k gross with minimal 401k match. Every firm will be about the same so the brokers in motion will slow down. When will it end?

Let’s see if we can do the math…  L share, that pays 4%, firm only pays 2.75%, and of that, I get 40%.  Hmmmm…4-2.75, carry the 4, and the 2…final payout=27.5% before taxes.  WTF!!!

[quote=duster10]Let’s see if we can do the math…  L share, that pays 4%, firm only pays 2.75%, and of that, I get 40%.  Hmmmm…4-2.75, carry the 4, and the 2…final payout=27.5% before taxes.  WTF!!![/quote]

Not to mention at AGE we would get 5+ % on alot of L shares…plus the 1% trail…just did one last week 5.25% L share 4 year w 1% trail

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11477
And they are starting to say its all coming down to wages and how they need to rise if the economy is to start growing again.

We work in one of the few industries where our wages seem to get cut every year. Less and less. I bet the industry is ripe for unionization. Not that I’m a fan of that nor fully understand the implications of unionization but who is watching our backs?? More gets taken away every damn year and nothing we can do about it. Yeah, I know…go inde. But that has a whole other set of issues I’m not ready or possibly even able to deal with right now.

Wages, It all gets down to wages. - Global ResearchGlobal Research - Centre for Research on Globalization
And they are starting to say its all coming down to wages and how they need to rise if the economy is to start growing again.

We work in one of the few industries where our wages seem to get cut every year. Less and less. I bet the industry is ripe for unionization. Not that I’m a fan of that nor fully understand the implications of unionization but who is watching our backs?? More gets taken away every damn year and nothing we can do about it. Yeah, I know…go inde. But that has a whole other set of issues I’m not ready or possibly even able to deal with right now.

Go Indy.