[quote=SuperMan]

You sound like a fool, ND.  Why comment on something you clearly have no idea about.  It's easy to see the survival rates of those that inhert assets and those that do not.  It's stagering.  19% of Jones new/news are in the business after 4 years.  The % goes up by a huge degree when someone inherts assets of any size.  GKs are only wothless to the guys who recive them and can't give credit where credit is due.

[/quote]

I am speaking of what a GK w/o an office of any kind means to a newbie. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to come to my conclusion. Based on Spiffs comments I don't see the benefit to the new guy but I do see the benefit to Spiff. Read what Spiff wrote and I think that speaks volumes.

[quote=Spaceman Spiff] 

Your BEST clients will be the ones you create yourself.  I look at my top 25 clients and well over half of them are people that I either doorknocked or were referred to me.  Only 2 or 3 of them were already in that top 25 when I took over the branch.   

When I go past my top 25 it always kind of shocks me how many clients I've created myself over the years and how little impact the original book I took over has on my current production.  Less than a third of my existing book is made up of clients I inherited.  And many of those are inactive or small accounts that I plan on Goodknighting someday in the future.    

My point being, don't rely on the book you take over to be what makes you successful at Jones.  10 years out, you probably won't have too many of those folks still in your book.  Keep prospecting for those new folks.  And don't stop until you get to $50 mil.  I made the mistake of letting off the gas too soon.  If I had a do over, that's the biggest thing I'd change. 

[/quote] 

Tell me this, what did you get handed to you SuperMinge? Actually, Spiff what did you get handed to you? I guess before making an assumption on Spiffs comments I should know if he is describing an open office or a GK only or both. As being a former HO employee, I would guess he didn't get the bottom of the barrel in his region which further reiterates my point.

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]

Yep, that's the way it works at Jones, at Merrill, at Morgan Stanley, etc.  Do you think when an indy rep brings on a junior assistant that the new FA gets to deal with all of the vet's prime accounts?  I don't think so. 

I'm not sure you can do both a GKN and a Legacy plan with the same new FA.  I would think the GKN program would superced the Legacy benefits. 

[/quote]

I think that's really the case at any firm.  I will make a suggestion or plea, if you will, that we all do the junior FAs in our group a favor and at least educate them on the quality of those bottom book clients.  Too many naive young FAs enter the business and take over the bottom of someone's book thinking it's their golden meal ticket (not due to stupidity, but more lack of understanding and experience in our business).  Nothing wrong with culling your book, but I know when and if I ever do it myself I will be upfront with the new guy and say to him, "look - these aren't going to make your career... use them for experience, service the heck out of them, but spend 90% of your time prospecting for new clients." 

PS - love the username, as I'm a big C&H fan.

Your comments just further prove SuperMan's point that you don't know what you're talking about here.

I took over a small book.  Less than $10 million when I took it over and I had about $3.5 mil worth of clients that left soon after I took over.  I probably should have held out for a bigger office, but the office I took over meant almost no commute and therefore access to my family when I needed to be there.  That outweighed a few million in assets for a 45 min drive twice a day.  It wasn't the bottom of the barrell, but I didn't get handed the silver spoon.  The book I took over, BTW was from a broker who was a GKN.  So, I did get the bottom of the barrell from a vet's book in a round about sort of way. 

Goodknight FAs work out of the veteran's office.   So there aren't any GKN FAs out there working from their car or kitchen.  The same with a Legacy plan.  The difference is that with a Legacy plan there aren't typically any assets that are given to them.  Often times, at least in my region, those folks take over offices that come available, but that may not be the case in other parts of the country. 

There absolutely is value in a new FA working out of a physical office.  Whether that be an existing office like kodak took over, or a GKN like I plan on doing some day.  Even if there aren't any assets in the office, there is an advantage to having the real estate to point prospects to for appointments.  I'm thankful that I didn't have to work from home at the beginning.  But I know of plenty of people that have proven that it can be done.   

[quote=Nova02]

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]

Yep, that's the way it works at Jones, at Merrill, at Morgan Stanley, etc.  Do you think when an indy rep brings on a junior assistant that the new FA gets to deal with all of the vet's prime accounts?  I don't think so. 

I'm not sure you can do both a GKN and a Legacy plan with the same new FA.  I would think the GKN program would superced the Legacy benefits. 

[/quote]

I think that's really the case at any firm.  I will make a suggestion or plea, if you will, that we all do the junior FAs in our group a favor and at least educate them on the quality of those bottom book clients.  Too many naive young FAs enter the business and take over the bottom of someone's book thinking it's their golden meal ticket (not due to stupidity, but more lack of understanding and experience in our business).  Nothing wrong with culling your book, but I know when and if I ever do it myself I will be upfront with the new guy and say to him, "look - these aren't going to make your career... use them for experience, service the heck out of them, but spend 90% of your time prospecting for new clients." 

PS - love the username, as I'm a big C&H fan.

[/quote]

I had a vet tell me that the ratio should be 1 hour per week working in your office for every $1 mil you have in AUM.  So, if you took over a $10 mil book, spend 10 hours a week on the existing book and 40 hours a week building it.  Breathe when you get to $50 mil. 

One of these days I'm going to paint C&H cartoon strips all over my bathroom walls here at the office.  I keep threatening to get a C&H tatoo, but I'm not sure I'm that willing to be connected with them for the rest of my life.  It's a shame Bill Watterson got fed up with the crap Universal was putting him through.  He is one of the best there will ever be.   

Thanks for all the wisdom, guys! I have no reservations about taking over this office... It is a VERY established office in a very good market. I know I can't rely on the existing book, but the experience I have obtained (just from two weeks) with the "old" clients is phenomenal! I am looking forward to a future here. Too bad I have to drive 25 mins to work! 

Kodak

new/new ... but I would have loved to have had a GK and an office to work out of. 

Kudos to you superman for going it alone.

To you and spiff, I think nova summed it up for me. GKs should be for rainy days when door knocking is most difficult.

Also to spiff, I said your value was in the office not the book in it. I have read thread after thread on here especially in the archives about how GKs should have the disclaimer of “buyer beware”

I think most of them know that the assets they get are the ones their GKN FA doesn't want.  A lot of the ones that we've had in our region have been GK2s, which are only $5 million.  Most of them say that the only value they saw in the program was getting to work with a veteran FA 5 days a week.  I think if I were to do it over again, I'd have chosen to do a GKN plan rather than just take over an office.  Unless it was a $40 non-competitive situation.  That's what I tell HQ folks who ask me about going into production. 

When I had a huge book at the bank, 1100 hh, 120m in assets...

If I'd have given away the bottom 20m, even 30m of that book, I'd have killed the poor fellow that got those assets. I'd worked over the small accounts for 9 yrs, WITH a licensed assistant/junior partner too. It got to the point, where we'd squeezed every last bit of opportunity out of the small side. It truly was a liability and I was actively trying to find ways to dump it, though most of my colleagues in similar situations were too stupid to get it. Well, the events of 2008 took care of that, and here I am indy, with only the A and B part of the book. The 2 guys that took our place, probably thought they'd inherited the Taj Mahal, but as the months went by, we took the good stuff, left the bad, and they are doing below the firm's average acceptable production. 

I'm not saying that this Good Night.. program is all bad, but if those accounts come from some top dog hard working guy, then I'd bet that 95-99% of the HH are pure $hit.    

Here are my observations from the GK FAs in my region.  The kill it the first twelve months.  Flat out murder it.  (compaired to a new/new) however as they work over their book and pick off the low hanging fruit from those 7 weeks of door knocking their production begins to suffer in a BAD way.  They stall out and begin to say the GK clients blow and take too much time to service.  If they had to do it over again, they would have been new/new.  Ha!  They got lazy is all and never developed good habits.

Now Jones knows this and tries to address it through bigger min. standards but they are easy enough to hit.

The biggest problem I see with GKs are not the accounts they inherit but the fact the Vet. FA does not look at it like a mentor situation but just a way to dump their crap on someone elses head and new guys in general think having a 8k month is AMAZING!

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]

I think most of them know that the assets they get are the ones their GKN FA doesn't want.  A lot of the ones that we've had in our region have been GK2s, which are only $5 million.  Most of them say that the only value they saw in the program was getting to work with a veteran FA 5 days a week.  I think if I were to do it over again, I'd have chosen to do a GKN plan rather than just take over an office.  Unless it was a $40 non-competitive situation.  That's what I tell HQ folks who ask me about going into production. 

[/quote] HA I bet!! How often does that happen? Also, when an FA takes over an office be it competitive or not, do they ever not have to do the DK stuff the first three months? I heard after 3 months the reps can prospect however they want but if they are a transfer broker or from the home office like you, do they go through the training program?

just my opinion, the door knocking would really suck even if it is only for say 6 months or whatever.

Everyone has to doorknock minus the transfer broker I believe.  Maybe even them.

It does suck but damn is it effective. Especially in small towns.  I get 1-2 calls per month now from people I door knocked a year ago that want to do business with me.  I've found million dollar accounts and some crap too.  I guess it's like any prospecting method - if you do enough of it, often enough.  You'll make it.

It really depends on the situation.  I'm not sure how they do it anymore, but they used to not make some HQ people go through the whole training process because they wanted them in the office ASAP.  Especially if they were from some department like Training where they taught the classes and wouldn't get any additional benefit from sitting through it.  Sometimes you just know the right people who can pull the right strings to get you out of it. 

I actually enjoyed the doorknocking once I got started with it.  I enjoyed being outside in the fresh air, talking with people, getting a little excercise.   There's nothing like walking around with nothing but your thoughts to give you time to think about your business.  Of course some guys just plain hate it. 

$40 mil non-competitive offices don't come up very often.  It would be more normal to take over a $60 mil competitive office and see it turn into a $30 mil office.  I've had more than one conversation with new FAs in that situation.  I have a hard time feeling sorry for them.   

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]

[quote=Nova02]

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]

Yep, that's the way it works at Jones, at Merrill, at Morgan Stanley, etc.  Do you think when an indy rep brings on a junior assistant that the new FA gets to deal with all of the vet's prime accounts?  I don't think so. 

I'm not sure you can do both a GKN and a Legacy plan with the same new FA.  I would think the GKN program would superced the Legacy benefits. 

[/quote]

I think that's really the case at any firm.  I will make a suggestion or plea, if you will, that we all do the junior FAs in our group a favor and at least educate them on the quality of those bottom book clients.  Too many naive young FAs enter the business and take over the bottom of someone's book thinking it's their golden meal ticket (not due to stupidity, but more lack of understanding and experience in our business).  Nothing wrong with culling your book, but I know when and if I ever do it myself I will be upfront with the new guy and say to him, "look - these aren't going to make your career... use them for experience, service the heck out of them, but spend 90% of your time prospecting for new clients." 

PS - love the username, as I'm a big C&H fan.

[/quote]

I had a vet tell me that the ratio should be 1 hour per week working in your office for every $1 mil you have in AUM.  So, if you took over a $10 mil book, spend 10 hours a week on the existing book and 40 hours a week building it.  Breathe when you get to $50 mil. 

One of these days I'm going to paint C&H cartoon strips all over my bathroom walls here at the office.  I keep threatening to get a C&H tatoo, but I'm not sure I'm that willing to be connected with them for the rest of my life.  It's a shame Bill Watterson got fed up with the crap Universal was putting him through.  He is one of the best there will ever be.   

[/quote]

that's dedication!  I have most of the books, and a funny strip pinned to my desk at work where Calvin tries to sell lemonade for $15.