H&r block
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[quote=Joe the Broker]Actually the bank I work for wld be an easy sell at a party. And even if you were associated with a community bank, you can still name your B/D (like LPL or RJFS), you'd fit right in at a party. Frankly this sounds like something a misinformed rookie wld say.
No fool wld license a teller by the way, licensed bankers are a different story. But this benefits the broker at most places. Also in most instances, you do not pay for expenses (unless you are doing something unusual - like huge mailings - then you wld prob chip in).
As with any b/d, bank or not, the success is because of the rep, not the name. You cld make it at HRB if you stuck with it and worked hard as well as anywhere else.
[/quote]
What's up with this guy's name anyway? Tryin' to pimp my rep?
I've been in my bank program and I'm completing my first full year of production.
I would say a bank is a very good place to start and possibly finish someday.
You have a built in audience, low/no overhead, and a chance to cultivate a good referral source in your bank partners.
Everyone's situation is different of course so I would say just find your niche, be nice to your biz partners and clients, and enjoy what you do everyday and success has a very good chance to follow!
scrim
Bankrep,
You're nothing more than a poster child for what's wrong with this industry. Let me fill you in on something. H&R Block and Banks get their clients primarily from people walking in and handing the business to you. That's why when you leave or the clients get reassigned to a new broker, their affinity to you as their broker is almost non-existent. Who do you think will care for the client more....someone that gets a clients business or someone that earns it?
When you go into a room of advisors and you have a grin ear to ear from working at a bank, the real advisors will think you are an absolute joke. How on earth can you be proud of working for a third tier firm? If the real brokers don't laugh in your face, the'll be making references about you and the similarities to Primerica behind your back.
When we think of quality, do we think about all those that failed as real advisors and ended up at a bank, credit union, or discount broker, or do we think of someone that had to earn their way in the business, develop great relationships, and actually prospect for a living.
Keep looking in the mirror and telling yourself what you want to hear.
Youcan,
you're so great. Actually you're an ass for sharing your absolutly idiot remarks.
You can,
You're a complete moron. If I wanted to spend my time prospecting I would go get a job at Smith Barney or Merrill or worse yet EDJ. I prefer to spend my time helping people fufill their goals (Not that I don't have repsect for some advisors at those firms because I might).
I can't count the number of people who tell me thier former advisors harass them for referrals, I say Mr. X If I do a good job for you tell your friends if you'd like if you prefer to keep me a secret I'm ok with that too then I stop and they appreciate that.
I have never failed at anything in my life. Nowhere is turnover higher than in bank programs even the failed brokers can't make it here. My third tier firm works just fine for me. Go watch boiler room and beat off you loser.
YOU CAN Said:
"Bankrep,
You're nothing more than a poster child for what's wrong with this industry. Let me fill you in on something."
Please go into to detail. I have taken the time to educate myself I have a masters, the CFP certification and a handful of other designations. I create a financial plan with every client, please tell me how I am a poster child for what's wrong.
As far as caring more for a client one who earns the business or gets handed it. The answer could be either. I by nature am an ethical person, I try to do whats best because I believe what goes around comes around and that if you do a good job for people you'll be rewarded. I have seen the worst investments, pure sh*t from people who had attened some seminars or had some guy call them, please elaborate on how earning it makes you more ethical? I just don't see the connection. I responded now it's your turn, please explain or do you always make decisions without knowing all the details? I hope this is not how you invest your clients money. Are you even an advisor, probably not.
bankrep,
Masters Degree? CFP? why on earth are you at a bank? Banks can't even manage people's checking account correctly. What makes a person think they can manage money? Prioprietary funds, bait and switch annuities, index annuities sold by a broker with a weekend course to be a Senior Advisor Specialist. You are truly a joke. I have my masters degree and CFP as well. What I have that you don't is the ability to take accounts with very little effort from banks, credit unions, H&R Block, and the sort. The clients I EARN stay with me as well.
What happens the next time one of your 8 banks gets reasigned to someone else? How about when regulators go after your bait and switch annuity sales that you put the 80 year old in at 3%. How about that client that you put that 2% wrap account that you haven't talked to in 4 years? Let's see where you are in another 10 years after the bank screws you.....and they will. I'll be laughing at you just like if I met you at a party and you told me where you work.
[quote=youcanhatemenow]
I can't believe what I'm seeing. H&R Block and banks touting their firms. Unbelievable. Let's be honest....both are chop shops.
Let's pretend you work for H&R block or for a bank. You go to a party and find out there are a ton of brokers there. People start introducing themselves and they let you know they are from Merrill, Smith Barney, AG Edwards, Ed Jones, or UBS. Your turn.....are you proud to say where you work? Probably not....that's the best litmus test there can possibly be.
I have seen two brokers leave for HRBF in the last two years. Both had production that a monkey could match. One of the brokers was morbidly obese and I swear he sweated grease. He looked like a sleaze. I even met a regional manager on a plane from HRB. I almost fell out of my seat and laughed when he told me where he was from. It's like the recruiting phone call I got from Allstate the other day.
HRB and bank brokers, keep looking in the mirror each morning and tell yourself you are the cream of the crop. Maybe someday you might just believe it.
PS. We call H&R Block by its other name H&R _ock.
[/quote]
I have to say I don't like how he puts it, but this guy is 100% right. OTOH, why should you care what the other guys think? If you're happy doing what you're doing, working where you work, have the strength of character to not care what others think.
To me it's like owning a Miata in a parking lot of Porsches. Personally, I'm going to own a Porsche, otoh, I'd like to think I'm a big enough guy not to feel the need to pick on the Miata driver who's happy with this car.
My client base is 40-65 year old executives, I work for a credit union (no proprietary BS) who is strongly aligned with a fortune 500 company. I take almost all of my money from Fidelity, Merril, UBS, Smith Barney AMEX etc. rather than from the bank, I use the institution as a means to meet people. No one is going to reassign my book, take my clients etc. because my clients won't accept that (maybe a few), working for a smaller institution has it's advantages.
I have never switched anything besides a few fixed annuitties whose rate was low. Can't Merrill screw you in the same way? Please elaborate on why you think they can't.
Yes I love my job, it is a job. Not building my own business nor do I have a desire to right now. Like I said if I wanted to work at Merril UBS, etc they would hire me based on my CFP/masters and magnetic personality
I don't know. Maybe I see everything thru rose tinted bifocals but I believe once my clients have been with me for a few years they would follow me no matter what firm I went to.
I know this is not 100% the case but hopefully my best clients would.
scrim
I worked at ML, was busting a** and hitting my hurdles, and I decided it would be much easier and quicker to build a book at a bank (and since I was being recruited anyway it was an easy decision).
To say a bank is 3rd tier...in what respect? I know what ML offers, and I can offer the same MLUA account (fee based brokerage), the same MFA Selects account (wrap mutual funds), stocks, bonds, and I even have my futures license (easiest test ever) so I can offer managed futures.
So YouCan HateMeNow, beyond the obscure "structured" product (and actually can offer some structured notes through Rabobank and HSBC) what can my buddies downtown at ML or UBS do that I can't???
BankFC,
Alot of people think. It was like that 20 years ago so thats the way it is. They refuse to see the bank is a better place to build a business because they're set in their ways.
Yes, there are some, maybe even alot of crappy bank programs that rely on 100% annutties for their business model. I said it and No I wouldn't consider working for one of them.
The banks serve the mass market and alot of people only have 20 or 50K maybe 100K as their life savings at age 65. These are not folks that are going to invest in a mutual fund for growth at Merril Lynch. That does not mean someone can't help them, a bank brokers book is huge in terms of # of clients. I know indys who say 100 clients is to many for one advisor, a bank advisor will have 2000+ clients after a 5 or 10 years. Yes alot of them will be small 5K in a roth, 25K in funds, but these folks deserve help too, create a team, move your way up the food chain so your seeing accounts over 500K, but still getting a piece of the 50K biz by mentoring the next generation.
[quote=BankFC]
I worked at ML, was busting a** and hitting my hurdles, and I decided it would be much easier and quicker to build a book at a bank (and since I was being recruited anyway it was an easy decision).
To say a bank is 3rd tier...in what respect? I know what ML offers, and I can offer the same MLUA account (fee based brokerage), the same MFA Selects account (wrap mutual funds), stocks, bonds, and I even have my futures license (easiest test ever) so I can offer managed futures.
So YouCan HateMeNow, beyond the obscure "structured" product (and actually can offer some structured notes through Rabobank and HSBC) what can my buddies downtown at ML or UBS do that I can't???
[/quote]
Come on, the youcan guy, while obnoxious, is correct. Wirehouse guys think banks and insurance companies are third tier, and most often rightfully so. They're playing with the Yankees and some guy playing for the single A farm team thinks he's a peer.
The question YOU should be asking yourself is why do you care?
I used to work for a bank and have worked at a top tier wall street firm and a high quality super regional firm. some of my biggest and best clients came from the bank. Built in trust being reffered from the teller they have seen working there for 15 years. I won accounts from the competition (sh*t Barney, Morgan StanFee, Merrill Stench: don't take it personally guys) a lot of client's didn't give a damn that I didn't have the biggest d*ck (platform, ***reputation***) around.
In fact I saw more millionaires in my first month at the bank than I did my entire 2 years cold calling for one of the brokerages I poked fun at. At my previous "wirehouse" employer we had marble floors, brushed steel walls: all the trappings of "success" (more like a silverback gorilla pounding it's chest when no one cares). It didn't help me land more affluent clients or make my job easier even though we had a household name.
I moved to a bank in some remote town (county had 15,000 people!) in the sticks and I'm doing $200,000 to $600,000 transactions, my smallest accounts being about $150k.
I now work for a big brokerage again because the bank dropped my payout by 30% and I like a more sophisticated platform (my clients could care less) as well as having more control over my accounts, oh and less compliance headache.
People don't give much of a crap about your firm as long as it's a reputable place. Get over it.......dude.
[quote=dude]
In fact I saw more millionaires in my first month at the bank than I did my entire 2 years cold calling for one of the brokerages I poked fun at. [/quote]
Yeah, but how many of them worked with YOU instead of the Private Bank or Trust Department (where bank execs think all their really smart investment guys work)?
[quote=bankrep1]I work with many and the longer I stay the more will come[/quote]
You're happy with where you are and what you're doing. You're doing clean, honest business, why should you care what others think?
Mike,
It's called a forum...people post. I don't think your opinion or anyone else's is going to shatter anybody's world. So why do you keep asking why should he care?
What basis is their for anyone to think banks are third tier to wirehouses.
99.9 percent of the products at wirehouses are available at banks...and if you're pushing the .1% proprietery crap...well that says enough about you.
Tell me how by clearing through ML it makes you a better broker than clearing through National Financial or Pershing?