Give Up?
28 RepliesJump to last post
Dash - In your view, what’s changed for the better? What’s changed for the worse?
Changes For The Better:
1. Availability of Independent Contractor Firms.
2. Technology (More information and quicker access)
3. Technology (execution of trades)
4. Technology (Database management)
5. Diversity of product.
6. Little better financially educated public.
Changes For Worse:
1. Reduction of commissions on mutual funds, stocks and bonds. (My first year in business I sold 8 1/2% load funds, 4 point bonds and the typical 100 share trade was $150.
2. Increase in paperwork. We could open an account with name, address, telephone number and TIN.
3. Attorneys (or fear of) dominate our business.
4. Regulators have become media darlings.
5. 24 hour news and business programs and their talking heads.
6. NASD has almost become the enemy of the average broker.
7. Commoditization of financial products.
8. Availability of information to our clients through the internet.
9. Increased number of brokers.
10. Banks selling securities.
11. Insurance agents who have added Series 6 licenses.
12. Suse Orman, Jane Bryant Quinn and The Dolans (Pablum for the masses)
Dash - evey thing you mentioned for "the better" works against us as advisors. Technology has given a transparency to the business, that makes our job harder. I know I can come off as negative, but don't you see things today as much harder?? A better educated investing public, does not help us as advisors. (I'm sure an argument could be made for why it should, in reality I don't think it helps us).
In todays world, we have:
tranparency of the business
technology as competition
media coverage and opinions = confusion + false expectations
Glass Stegal repeal, bank insurance companies competition
COMPLIANCE (zero creativity on behalf of advisors)
Post tech bubble, still fresh wound
The investing public has been hammered for the last 20 years, by telemarketers (stockbrokers), and are more cautious than ever!
And oh, because accounts are harder to come by, let's annuitize at 1%, to smooth out the ride. Yes, you can take the upfront.....but unless you have a steady in flow of assetts, is this a good idea???
You have do 5X as much work, for a third the money in todays world. The new guys on this forum wonder why the failure rate is so high......sometimes I think the insurance guys have it figured out....here's your product, you get 8% on every dollar that goes in....now go sell it!!
Moneyadvisor:
I know I will run the risk of irritating you with my story telling but I'm so used to using it as part of my business, I'll take the risk.
In 1990, in the month of August, my father died. Iraq invaded Kuwait. Two weeks after my father died, my wife committed suicide because of severe depression. A rumor quickly circulated that my wife killed herself because I was fooling around with my new female broker (not true). To put it bluntly, my life came screeching to a halt. I had to deal with the grief of my father's and wife's death. I had to deal with my children's grief. I had to deal with declining financial markets and a total drying up of new business.
One of my clients, a nice elderly lady, gave me a very surprising book, "Neo-Linguistic Reprogramming For Achieving Your Potential". The book starts with a story set in China, with an old Chinese man telling the story.
It seems that two Chinese warlords had decided to go to war. The warlord sent troops to his little village. His friend who was listening to the story said, "That is good, your village was protected." The elderly man said, "No, that was bad, they came to force men into the army."
His friend said, "That is bad." The elderly man said, "No, that is good. They took my son and when the opposing army came through the village, they killed all of the young men. My son's life was saved."
The elderly man then said his son was put in the cavalry. His friend said, "That is good." The elderly man said, "No, that is bad. His horse threw him off and he broke is arm." The friend said, "That is bad." The elderly man said, "No, that is good. He was in the hospital recovering when the army went into battle and was slaughtered."
The friend said, "That is good." The elderly man said, "Perhaps."
The point of the book is that situations in life and business are not inherently good or bad. It all depends on how you choose to view them and to approach them. It advocates reframing the things in your life and business that seem negative and determining how you can turn them into positives. I realize that this seems simplistic, but it helped me deal with a very difficult time and it helps me deal with this wild business today.
Dash:
I'll take a risk as well to make me look like a fool who is always praising you.
You are not only Mr. Wonderful but also a very brave man to reveal your life story .... most people wouldn't go this extent.
Trying to make negative situations positive ones. I can't agree more.
Thank you for your post for other's encouragement sake.
You will be so blessed...
BlueOpaqueGlass
Dash, I'll second the motion on Suze Orman. I wonder how she feels after telling everyone that annuities were bad and then watching them show their worth during the 2000-2002 bear market? When people start quoting her, I pretty much rule them out as prospects.
I'm also reminded of a speaker that I listened to at a national sales conference a couple of years ago. He said "CNBC is financial pornography and should not be seen by the investing public!"
Amen, Brother.