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Am I just not good at this?

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Apr 29, 2005 1:40 pm

I am employed by a major bank program in the NE.     I am in my first full year in this business.   In 2005 I am averaging about $12,500 gross revenue/month.   My book is about 6m.    I am building my business mostly around managed money/mutual fund wrap accounts as I believe this to be a great relationship building tool.    I currently have opened 22 of these accounts with total assets of around 1.6m.

A colleague of mine who started around the same time as me  is doing 5x the business i'm doing.   He is not doing managed money striving for the higher payout products like VA's and FA's.   He also works in a very affluent area.   

I do believe he can sell ice to an eskimo but I don't think he is 5x the better broker I am.

I need any words of encouragement.

Apr 29, 2005 3:04 pm

Scrim-

Keep doing your thing. By using managed money and fee based accounts that continue to pay you as long as the relationship remains, you are annuitizng your book. Your buddy is doing better presently, but he is slapping clients into VA's that pay out higher. Short term, thats great, but he will be unable to continue making money on those clients because he is locking up their money with VA's that have long term surrender schedules. Unless he flips their accounts into bonus VA's every couple of years or allows the client to take exit charges, that money is captive and lazy. Being a relative newbie ( about 5 years in the biz and two months w/ current firm), I understand the attraction of taking the large upfront hit on PC's, but I TRY to remember that this game is long term, and the best way to succeed is to generate a "salary" of annuitized business to sustain your business model in inevitable down years or flat growth years.

Apr 30, 2005 1:24 pm

Best way to get wealthy is to do it slowly… Annuitizing your book is one of the smartest ways to build your business in my way of looking at it. Great post Blarmston.

May 2, 2005 2:11 pm

Blarmstorm:

I beg to differ with you.  There are VAs out there that will pay a 1-1.25% trail in year 3 or 4 depending on the product.  I'm not saying that this is the best approach merely that it is a different approach.  He compatriot may also believe that it will be easier to move his clients from the bank to indy down the road.

May 4, 2005 7:51 pm

The feedback I received must have inspired me.

Since my plea for help last week I've opened 4 more managed money accounts for a total of 200k.

Now i'm up to 26 accounts with 1.8M in assets.    My trails begin to kick in this summer as I opened my first account last July.   Assets must be in there for 13 months before I start getting paid trails.

For some reason I tend to open accounts in bunches, not unlike HR's in baseball and bananas.

Scrim

May 4, 2005 7:58 pm

[quote=dashampersand]

Blarmstorm:

I beg to differ with you.

[/quote]

Would that be the same Blarmstorm who spouts off like he knows what he's talking about?

May 5, 2005 3:34 am

[quote=Put Trader][quote=dashampersand]

Blarmstorm:

I beg to differ with you.

[/quote]

Would that be the same Blarmstorm who spouts off like he knows what he's talking about?

[/quote]

Yes that's the same one, unlike yourself, who is cultured, knowledgeable, balanced, and oh so pleasant....

May 5, 2005 3:19 pm

Thanks for the support JoeDaMan, the checks in the mail…

May 5, 2005 11:28 pm

guys,

I wish we wouldn't digress.  

On a positive note opened 4 more accounts today 1 being managed money for our minimum of $25k.

My goal is to have 100 managed money accounts by year end 2006 which I'm figuring would be around 10M in assets.    My trails start kicking in September of this year so I can begin to start seeing the small payoffs to building my business this way.

After having my best month in March of 17k gross April was awful falling back to 7k.   May has gotten off gangbusters as I've done about 10k and it's only May 5th.  

My goals for gross production are:

2005  150k

2006  250k

2007  400k

2008  500k

For those who have been in the bank programs and built their business similarly does this seem realistic?    Our managed money program pays upfront 3% on non qualified assets and 2% on qualified assets and then the 1.5% and 1.0% trails kick in respectively after 13 months in the program.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Scrim

May 28, 2005 8:59 pm

I'm plugging along.  Here is my update for those who might want to follow my progress.

I continue to build momentum.  Maybe there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

In just the past two days including saturday I've done business with 3 separate new clients who gave me a total of 290k to manage.   

That brings me up to 32 managed accounts with around 2.3M in assets.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend and be safe.

May 30, 2005 12:21 am

Scrim,



How old are you if you don’t mind my asking?  Sounds like you’re
doing well; I hope I have similar success in my first year of
production.  Did you have a network to start with?

May 30, 2005 5:58 am

Scorpio,

I am 38 years old.  

No network at all when I began.   Spent a few years in mutual fund sales directly out of school and then spent the next ten climbing (albeit too slowly) the corportate ladder on the customer service side of a brokerage firm.

I should do approx 150-175k in GDC in 2005. As previously mentioned I'm doing mostly managed money which doesn't pay as much upfront.   However, over the long run I feel this is the best approach when you consider all parties (clients, myself, my firm)

As I open more accounts and become more persons "trusted advisor" I feel the momentum slowly building week to week.

Scrim

May 31, 2005 4:23 am

Scrim, I’ve been in your channel since '99 and am just a bit older than you.  I will lay odds that over the next five years you will take a hard look at going independent, and if you do, you’ll go.  After six years in the bank channel, I’ve reached my limit and am moving on.  You too will get tired of working hard and seeing most of what you produce stay in the bank (as opposed to going to your paycheck).  You’ll get tired of the changing comp plans, and all the mandatory meetings, forms, etc.  The only question is whether to go with LPL or Raymond James…which I intend to decide over the next six weeks…

May 31, 2005 4:43 am

Indyone,

Point well taken.

How will building the majority of my business thru my banks proprietary mutual fund wrap program affect moving my clients to the indy channel down the road?    I've heard it's not easy because you cannot ACAT in kind and would have to liquidate to have these accounts follow me possibly triggering substantial tax bills.

That's why i'm taking the long term approach and will probably stick around for awhile.

Thanks in advance for feedback.

May 31, 2005 6:21 am

Scrim, I'm surprised that the bank cannot ACAT the positions.  That being said, I believe that there is another way besides the ACAT system to transfer positions, but to be honest, the back office is not my forte, so perhaps I am dreaming.  All I do know is that our bank can ACAT positions out of our wrap program so apparently your issue is bank-specific.  That being said, I hope that your bank finds a way to transfer positions over the next few years.  Not doing so is like holding clients hostage and it's just a matter of time before the first unhappy client gets real unhappy when he/she finds out that he/she is stuck because of large unrealized capital gains.  My guess is that the bank will find some way of accomodating the unhappy client and that will be your ticket.

Also, nothing wrong with building the business a few years so that you can develop rapport with your clients and make them more likely to go when you get your fill.  Just don't sign any more non-competes!

...and by the way, I see nothing wrong with your numbers.  I had a similar profile and grew my numbers less rapidly since I have put about half of my client assets into fee-based accounts.  The best advice I can give you is to start being more selective with who you bring in or you'll get overwhelmed with numbers.  I have quit taking relationships under $100,000 and don't intend to take very many small accounts with me when I leave...

Jun 1, 2005 7:47 pm

Scrim67,

First off, congrats on gathering the managed money.  But my question, ...

What approach are you using? 

The reason I ask, I am new to the MM biz and still don't feel comfortable talking to clients about it.

Jun 2, 2005 1:41 am

Hi,

Let me clarify.

I am building my core business around my firm's mutual fund wrap program which is an investment management account.

We have six models from "preservation" to "aggressive".

I just have my clients talk to me about their own goals, risk tolerance and time frame and present one of our models or more than one if appropriate.

Because it's an investment advisor product (series 65)  I'm required to have at the very least an annual meeting with these clients to see if anything has changed regarding their financial situation.  It really promotes building a quality relationship with my customers and I have a good feeling that a small account today will become a bigger account tomorrow when I become their most "trusted advisor".    In the short time in my banks program the momentum that's building in my branches is almost palpable.

Again, my goal is to gather $500k/mo in this program.   If you extrapolate the numbers over a few years it becomes very powerful and I will have a more than viable business.

Scrim

Jun 4, 2005 7:00 pm

35 accts 2.4M

updated

Jun 6, 2005 3:31 am

[quote=scrim67]

35 accts 2.4M

updated

[/quote]

thanks for sharing.....

Jun 6, 2005 2:15 pm

Hey joeDaMan, how is the switch to the good side of the Force treating ya??? Need some help with those ACAT’s???