March 9, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
The simple answer is easy: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, personal financial advisors, on average, made $121,770 in 2018. Translated into an hourly figure, the typical financial advisor made $58.54 per hour, assuming a 40-hour work week.
That’s a mean average, though, which is skewed significantly higher by a few highly successful advisors at the top of the profession. The median average is much lower: $88,890 per year in 2018, or – again assuming a 40-hour work week — $42.73 per hour. “Median” means half the advisors surveyed earned more than that figure, in that year, and half of them made less.
The lowest 10% nationwide made $41,590, or $19.99 per hour – assuming a 40-hour work week. The top quartile of the profession earned $157,710.
But few of them became that successful by working a mere 40-hour work week in their early years!
Here are a few factors to consider to maximize your earning potential.
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How Financial Advisors Can Stay Ahead of Industry Commoditization
November 15, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
In our second in a series of Critical Issues Facing Financial Advisors Right Now, we focus on perhaps the most significant threat to advisor success, much less survival—the commoditization of the advisory industry. The threat is significant because most advisors don’t even know it’s happening to them. In this extremely cluttered and highly competitive advisory landscape, advisors who don’t find ways to stand out in the crowd get swallowed by a sea of mediocrity, where clients dare not go.
Sound overly dramatic? In fact, it might be understating what is happening. Striving to be a knowledgeable, client-focused, and trusted advisor is no longer enough because that is what clients expect. Advisors must work each day at providing their clients with the unexpected. Otherwise, why should they choose you over any other typical financial advisor? Equally important is why should they stay with you when they can find so many others like you from which to choose?
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4 Critical Issues Facing Financial Advisors Right Now
November 1, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
In the year and a half since the beginning of the pandemic, the financial advisory industry has undergone massive change, impacting the way financial advisors practice their trade as well as the behaviors and habits of clients. Much of that change was underway before COVID but has accelerated or come more sharply into focus because of it.
Advisors have done well to adapt to changes precipitated by the pandemic—becoming adept at virtual communications and navigating the uncertainties of a troubled economy. However, in the wake of these changes, several issues continue to overshadow the industry, requiring advisors to switch from survival mode to aggressively managing them not just to survive but to thrive.
In the next couple of weeks, we will delve more deeply into some of these issues, the challenges they present, and how advisors can meet them head on for a greater chance at success. Among the many vital issues advisors are facing right now, here are four they must contend with in the immediate future.
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For Great Financial Advisors, the Profit is in the Relationship
June 7, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Managing the Relationship / 0 comments
The industry pressures that have weighed on financial advisors over the last few years will continue into 2021 and beyond, especially with the lingering effects of the pandemic. Fee compression, increasing regulation, heightened competition, and the commoditization of services are all part of an inevitable trend that threatens the survivability of many advisors. From now on, advisors who fall short of clearly differentiating themselves will have a difficult time bucking the trend, and advisors who fail to put their entire focus on their client relationships may be doomed.
Unfortunately, many advisors learn too late in their careers what I have stressed numerous times—that this isn’t a money business. It is a people business! For the first several years of an advisor’s career, the focus is almost solely on acquiring product knowledge, investment expertise, and planning skills. While that is essential for building necessary competencies, too few advisors come to realize that money management is not the lifeblood of their business—their clients are.
For financial advisors, the profit is not in the financial analysis or the transactions they conduct; it’s in the relationship.
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6 Tech Essentials for Financial Advisors
October 19, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Unquestionably, the advisory industry has been experiencing a significant transformation. Through advances in technology and the democratization of investing, financial advice is quickly becoming commoditized, much to the detriment of Financial Advisors who continue to languish in traditional business models. Today, adopting the right technology is becoming table stakes for advisors who want to maintain the trust of their clients and stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
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Becoming a Financial Advisor at 40? Yes, You Can!
April 27, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
This is for all you career-switchers, and those considering a career change move into financial advisory services:
Don’t listen to the nay-sayers and the haters: You absolutely can become a successful financial advisor as a second career. In fact, as a career-switcher, you’ll have many advantages over your younger peers in your training classes.
Here are some of the many pros of becoming a financial advisor mid-career – and a few of the obstacles you may encounter.
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How Much Do Financial Advisors Make?
March 9, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
The simple answer is easy: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, personal financial advisors, on average, made $121,770 in 2018. Translated into an hourly figure, the typical financial advisor made $58.54 per hour, assuming a 40-hour work week.
That’s a mean average, though, which is skewed significantly higher by a few highly successful advisors at the top of the profession. The median average is much lower: $88,890 per year in 2018, or – again assuming a 40-hour work week — $42.73 per hour. “Median” means half the advisors surveyed earned more than that figure, in that year, and half of them made less.
The lowest 10% nationwide made $41,590, or $19.99 per hour – assuming a 40-hour work week. The top quartile of the profession earned $157,710.
But few of them became that successful by working a mere 40-hour work week in their early years!
Here are a few factors to consider to maximize your earning potential.
Read more
4 Steps to Avoid the Commoditization Trap (And Justify Your Fees)
February 10, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Water is water, right? Everybody selling water is in the business of selling H2O. If anything was a hopeless case for commoditization and price collapse, it should be bottled water. Most cities in America can now deliver very clean, safe water right to the tap – at 0.0025 per gallon.
But bottled water companies like Waikea, Fiji, Aquafina and Desani have been tremendously successful in branding their products, affiliating themselves with target markets, associating themselves with positive lifestyles, creating a positive customer experience, and getting a premium price. Customers pay between 400 and 4,400 times more for bottled water than they do for tap water, and the premium water market continues to grow.
Financial advisors face a similar dynamic.
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