Nicely put Bamzor.

Not that I agree or disagree, just that it was a well stated metaphor. 

I didn’t like that analgy at all. Kinda dumb if you ask me.

[quote=silouette]

Nice analogy.

I love a good story.

Speaking of growing things, I tell clients and prospects (my focus is golf and money):

" I protect and grow money for my clients. Money is a lot like grass.

The golf club is in the grass growing business. It takes watering, fertilizing, and lots of cutting. You can grow good grass in mainly just sand in those conditions.

You need a good greenskeeper just to protect the grass - not overfertilize, plug and sand at just the right time the spring, it comes down to good planning and flawless execution, but it is basically a simple business.

Of course, we need to protect your money, first and foremost. For your money, not only is there plenty of water, fertilizer and cutting - but also, lots of organic matter, rich, natural fertilizer - that would be my experience! We also call that diversification ....

Protecting and growing money is simple, but not easy. Best case scenario, you'd find an advisor you could work with over many, many years - kind of like a really good golf teacher or greenskeeper your best foursome buddies ...

[/quote]

That's some lame sh*t. You don't really say that to people, do you? If you said that to anyone with an IQ over 100, they'd laugh you out of their house.

[quote=csmelnix]

The only caution I would add on LPL is the conception that they don’t have proprietary products etc… certainly this is true but what they do have and contrary to what all of you may say, they definitely incent you to use their proprietary platforms.   Good bad or indifferent, it’s an individual decision.  I personally have been very happy here and have no real complaints.  But lately, and maybe it’s because of all the acquisition etc things that been happening, the service center has slipped both in accuracy of info and in time to answer.  I am a bit concerned as they continue to grow they will also become a bit more restrictive on things - you can only manage and supervise so much and I can already see where they have built a sand box that they want to keep us all in to ease that part of business, trying to get out of that is when you run in to a bit of trouble. 

But again, I have been very happy and offer no real complaints. 

Just out of curiousity Bamzor - what does 50% of advisor doing north or south of 100k have to do with what I am doing locally?  I look at that in two ways: 1.  LPL is not telling me who I have to bring into my business if I wish to grow horizontally or vertically (like RJ and Commonwealth are) 2.  They are profitable because of their business model on reps that are doing below $100k which to me is pretty telling on how efficient that can be for me who is doing close to 5x that!

Hey if it works for them, doesn't affect what I do on a day to day and local basis - it's just make up on a pig then.

That's some lame sh*t. You don't really say that to people, do you? If you said that to anyone with an IQ over 100, they'd laugh you out of their house.

 Talk about being too serious. I can't remember the last time I went to a client's smelly house.

Couple of beers, a good cigar, driving the cart over to Mr. client's bad tee shot, " Ya know, growing money is a lot like growing grass ". Like I say, my specialty is a big picture approach. Nice try, though, Bobby. Don't you have a good hockey analogy for us, though, or maybe, Yah, yunnoh, dem Canadians nowe, dey got dah life about money and hockey, yunnoh, vast country, small population, many resources ... and hockey, ya see ...

I have found that service has improved considerably in the last 30 days or so as they get the Charlotte center up and running.  Good pool of trained personnel available in that town.

That's cool that they opened in Charlotte. I heard they recruited some Ameriprise service people - some concern reps might be talking to India for service soon.

[quote=silouette]

I have found that service has improved considerably in the last 30 days or so as they get the Charlotte center up and running.  Good pool of trained personnel available in that town.

That's cool that they opened in Charlotte. I heard they recruited some Ameriprise service people - some concern reps might be talking to India for service soon.

[quote=ezmoney]I didn't like that analgy at all. Kinda dumb if you ask me.[/quote]

First learn to spell.  Analogy (Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.) 

 And you were not asked. But just by reading your comment, I understand you have no clue how farmers work. That's OK. You see ez, I understand my clients, they understand me.

I remember in another post you bitching about clients worried about their account values and you having to talk to them. Did they pay you?   Your the one to blame with that frustration.  You may need to learn to use analogy's in your business to explain markets and values. We say long term, clients think whatever is in the news. Its your job to help them and it may take ten times.  I have it great, people understand in my area how farms work. So I tend to use what I know personally and it's believable. I have noticed many people slamming some analogy's. Why? It may make sense to that broker and having convection in your analogy makes it memorable to the client.

You say dumb, I say common sense.

[quote=Bamzor]

[quote=ezmoney]I didn’t like that analgy at all. Kinda dumb if you ask me.[/quote]

First learn to spell.  Analogy (Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.) 

 And you were not asked. But just by reading your comment, I understand you have no clue how farmers work. That's OK. You see ez, I understand my clients, they understand me.

I remember in another post you bitching about clients worried about their account values and you having to talk to them. Did they pay you?   Your the one to blame with that frustration.  You may need to learn to use analogy's in your business to explain markets and values. We say long term, clients think whatever is in the news. Its your job to help them and it may take ten times.  I have it great, people understand in my area how farms work. So I tend to use what I know personally and it's believable. I have noticed many people slamming some analogy's. Why? It may make sense to that broker and having convection in your analogy makes it memorable to the client.

You say dumb, I say common sense.

Well, if you a person never had a chance to plow a field, and understand life from that perspective, then they just don't know. How can they understand the difference between driving a diesel tractor for ten hours ( and being put asleep by the steady, powerful, drone) versus driving a gas tractor ( and staying awake because the nature of the engine revs up and down with the terrain).

Point is, everywhere you look, life runs in concentric rings, like when your bass lure hits the water and you wait for the ripples to subside before you twitch the lure. That's when the bass hits, explodes into the air when it hits the lure, if there is one there, and you think like a bass.

This is a simple business, but it is not easy or shallow. Just being open minded enough to really hear a person tell a story, and feel how it fits, is a skill.

Common sense.

You got me, I am drunk in public. 

Bamzor - I get your point, I am not picking a fight but on that analogy, one thing to keep in mind in examining its relevance to LPL is where LPL's profit margin stands v RJFS.  LPL has a much stronger profit margin than RJFS and any other indy firm on the street even with half its advisors doing less than $100k which is what my point is.  They have a structure that allows them to be profitable on advisors doing roughly $60k or more - and as an independent business owner, if I want to hire a new advisor, train them, build an exit strategy with them etc., I dont' need my b/d telling me that I can't do that with this or that rep because they aren't producing a certain level of GDC.  Either I am independent or I am not and at LPL when it comes to this, my hats off to them for allowing us at the local level to make that decision. 

point take.   

I'm picking a fight. It was a stupid analogy. Who else agrees?

I also worked in the ag business for 12 years with a major green farm equipment supplier in a huge agricultural region responsible for over $80 million in sales. I know more about agriculture in my one fingure. It was still a stupid analogy.

[quote=ezmoney]

I’m picking a fight. It was a stupid analogy. Who else agrees?

I also worked in the ag business for 12 years with a major green farm equipment supplier in a huge agricultural region responsible for over $80 million in sales. I know more about agriculture in my one fingure. It was still a stupid analogy.

While I don’t think it was stupid, I still don’t understand it.  However, if it works with your clients, go for it.

It's not an analogy I use for clients, I just made the comparison of what one of my grandfathers had to work with to that of LPL. Each farmer is independent, but as a company LPL is not. It must worry with having to support half of its clients earning <100 gross  (crops without irrigation). Many would believe this failing after a few years, you may not. The other side (crops with irrigation) you have less worries (low attrition).

The point is as a company LPL is made up of independent farmers. The success of the farmer in Kansas has nothing do with one in Mississippi.  However, LPL, must support ALL.  It's hard for me to believe these ratios don't affect support on some level.  Its fairly easy to see if you plot this on a bell curve.

I took your analogy to mean that RJR, with higher expectations and more focused producers, provides a more stable growth environment.

Not unlike the subleties of running a core asset allocation portfolio and making customized adjustments based on market expectations in tune with personal risk tolerance, don't see how you can plot those success ratios on a bell curve.

Bam, make sure you invest your time with people who are as smart as you.

Abraham Lincoln was a great storyteller, so was Shelby Foote, keep those analogies coming!

http://slate.msn.com/id/2121924/?nav=ais

http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-203861

[quote=ezmoney]

I'm picking a fight.  It was a stupid analogy. Who else agrees?

I also worked in the ag business for 12 years with a major green farm equipment supplier in a huge agricultural region responsible for over $80 million in sales. I know more about agriculture in my one fingure. It was still a stupid analogy.

[/quote]

You already did. Do you degrade your clients by using adjectives like dumb and stupid?