If you are just starting out, you don't know anything about managing money. You probably think you do, but you dont. Use a mutual fund wrap program that your firm offers, or use firm models and choose your own funds/ETF's. If you do the later, have a matrix for the funds, so that for example you are always using the same Large Cap Growth fund, etc. This way you don;t have to do any research. Dont even read analysts research. Just read your firms strategist research so you have an opinion that you can verbalize

Try to make all of your appointments on the same day. If you do that you can knock out 4 appointments on one day, and cold call the other days. If you can, make the appointments after hours. Many people would be happy to do that, because they are busy with their own business/job during work hours.

Don't depend on cold calling alone. You need to network - an event at least once a week. And seminars - the one thing i never did regularly that i am sorry i didnt do.

Thanks again Sportsfreakbob for your response.

I like the matrix approach, although you would still need to re balance from time to time and check whether your short list is still up to date, etc... 

As far as the wrap program is concerned, does that affect your AUM fee? Do you offset a portion of the Wrap fees against your fees or is the client simply double charged?

How do you go about selling such a product to client, when the management is done by a third party (charging extra fees) and you still charge the client for something you don't do yourself?

I know you are still checking on an ongoing basis that the investment strategy is still in line with the clients objectives, but don't clients ever question that double AUM fee?

Thxs

Jay

I'm confused by your question re fees. Are you RIA? What are you charging other than the wrap fee? The wrap fee IS the fee.

How you sell it to clients (aside from the fee) depends on the program your B/D offers. Are you choosing the funds or is the B/D. Who is making asset allocation decisions? Do you do Financial Planning for the client and if so how do you charge? is it part of the fee?

When i do MF wrap business i provide a technical overlay, so if the indicators say to do so, i will pull money out (not to try to capture a 10% correction, but bigger moves)

Its all based on what your value prop is. BUT - as a newbie your focus needs to be on prospecting not managing money. And thats the point. These programs let you leverage your time.

I have never seen a new advisor come out of training, focus on managing money, and not fail.

Don;t know how new you are, from your posts it seems you are very new. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But if i am right, this is a very important point for you to grasp if you want to be in the biz a year from now.

SF Bob 

I am working for a  broker selling offshore life assurance products  (not insurance!) in  Latin America.

Coming from an entrepreneurial background, I am really enjoying my new career as a broker/advisor.

However I would like to take this a step further and offer more to my clients than just the few products my firm has sales agreement with and start offering a much wider product range.

I kind of like the USA business model RIA & Custodian or B/D which is why I'm trying hard to understand how it works and how I could adapt this to my market.

Ideally I would like to find a NON US-resident friendly B/D or Clearing (or custodian?) that has a Hybrid (Fee and Commisions) platform and access to a very wide product range including offshore funds.

Does such a thing even exist? Or something close to it?

Since we don't have the heavy US regulation burden, what's the best business model? Passing your orders through a Discount Broker? DO they usually have a minimum AUM?

So how do you purchase those wraps? Through a fund supermarket/discount broker?

I'm sure you now uderstand why I am so confused about all this US terminology and don't know a thing about fee structures and setting up an AUM fee, etc...

I am definitely going to follow your advice and focus new clients relationships, however I really need to start offering more to my clients if I want to build a proper book and not been stuck selling life assurance all my career...

Thanks again for helping!