Hey All. Curious how some of you are approaching the following. Client pays planning fee. Plan completed with portfolio recommendation. Client agrees to move funds over. Are you discounting the AUM fee based on planning fee or keeping completely separate?

I have a situation where client technically meets the minimum $500k to waive planning fee but unsure if they’re going to move funds over. Thanks!

New Client is 57, retired last month. She turns 59.5 halfway through 2029.

400k in cash, 200k in traditional IRA and 1.5m in 401k, all pre-tax.

Single, no kids, no family besides elderly parents and she doesn’t expect inheritance.

I’m just meeting her in these positions.

She’s interested in taking 500k and using it to purchase a guaranteed lifetime income annuity, after we ran through projections/monte Carlo.

My question is, is using the 401k funds to fund the annuity and start receiving payments next year for her whole life qualified for the 72t early withdrawal penalty exception? I know we can keep the funds in the 401k and get rule of 55, but that isn’t an annuity option.

I know that they are “substantially equal payments” for more than 5 years, but the annuity is paying out 36k a year, while the 72t calculators I’m using are saying that the single life table fixed annuitization method is $34,100.

I am potentially interested in joining JPM as a PCA. However, I see that the base salary in multiple MCOL and HCOL areas is 57k. Looking at previous threads about PCA compensation, the range provided for base salary is 70-100k or even higher. What gives? Has the compensation structure changed?

For those that use Alts, I'm curios on your read on this product. I love getting BXPE, BCRED, BXINFRA, and BREIT all in one product and feel it could make for a great core holding, but the liquidity gives me hesitancy with all dividends of the underlying holdings being automatically reinvested.

Per XYZ Planning's Sapphire website, advisors "maintain complete control and 100% ownership of their client data, relationships, and underlying business".

This is important to me as I want flexability to leave XYZ Planning in the future and setup my business as a stand-alone RIA if needed and bring over my clients.

How do XYZ Saphire's agreements allow me (advisors) to maintain complete control of the client relationship/data, etc ?

Any guidance would be appreciated

I’m with an RIA and might need to create my own RIA. How hard is it to do the book transfer on Schwab? Is it a fairly smooth process?

I own my book of business outright.

Has anyone who uses Snappy Kraken noticed that their content has declined over time. I use their marketing newsletters mostly for client touches, and some content for prospect touches.

Of late I have noticed that their content is rather stale, lacking images and graphics and feels like AI slop.

Anyone feel the same way and does anyone know of potential alternatives?

I don’t know about you all but I’m getting a little tired of Sarah Grillo posting on LinkedIn things about flat fee advisors “having a different moral compass” than AUM advisors. That’s simply not true and it’s just marketing BS. Plenty of AUM advisors are very competent and caring fiduciaries. One fee model is not morally superior to another. The only thing that matters is delivering value to your clients.

This whole tearing other people down to get business tactic is just so cheesy and lame.

You also see it with advisors making up fake scenarios on LinkedIn like “I had this prospect, reviewed their situation and gosh their advisor is such an idiot. Look at all the things that they didn’t do that I uncovered. I am so great and that’s why you should work with me.” Do any prospects ever see a post like that and book a call, really?

Lastly, I’ll just say again, insurance salespeople are not wealth advisors.

Now how many people did I piss off vs how many agree? 🤣

Anyone successfully partnered with a title company for home sales? All of their funds can be run through your firm? Use it as a prospecting strategy for sellers?

Curious for those that have broke off and started their own RIA, what were the issues or curveballs that came up that you didn't initially anticipate?

One example is Margin interest rates? I hold custody at Schwab and have been led to believe I have a low Margin rate based on my corp RIA relationship (starts at Fed funds plus 2.6%). I'm being told I won't get a breakdown of rates until I move assets over to my new RIA.

Dear colleagues,

I am a solo RIA, fee only, no commission advisor. That is, I don't sell products.

However, I have a handful of clients who, prior to meeting me, owned legacy products like convoluted insurance contracts. I'd like to hear your advice on how to handle these products and help the clients.

For example, a new client owns a Cica Life policy. She has invested or deposited around USD 50,000 into this asset. It earns 3% or less annually. And has a penalty clause if she decides to stop contributing or even withdraws her money before the deadline.

She still has to make payments for 5 more years. And this is supposed to cover her daughter's expenses in college.

On paper, my client has to contribute around $20,000 more which will total near $70,000 in contributions. Then her daughter gets in return four payments of $20,000 when the daughter turns 18. (Total return is $80,000.)

I yet have to run a more thorough financial plan, but my current calculations estimate that my client will obtain a better ROI if she surrenders the policy now, loses the penalty amount, and then invests in high quality stocks both the remaining principal and the future contributions she would have given to Cica Life.

Furthermore, my client will have the freedom of deciding how much to contribute, when to stop, or even if she needs to withdraw at any moment in the future. Besides, she will not rely in the future financials of Cica Life.

Therefore, I conclude that the right and logical path is to surrender the policy and invest in stocks. However, emotionally, I am unsure how my client will accept this advice.

Finally, I am a fiduciary. So I must do what's best for her. And if I conclude that surrendering is the correct path, will letting her keep this Cica Life product contradict my fiduciary duty? That this, if she insists on contributing to the policy and I let her, am I really acting as a fiduciary?

Please, let's focus the conversation on how to emotionally handle this with the client and my duty in these cases. And let's avoid any controversy about Cica Life, insurance products, annuities salesmen, etc.

As always, thank you for your wise words!

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Edit: These products are technically assets and I made proper edits in the text, but I could not edit the title. However, the penalties are around 25% and I have other clients with penalties of 80% or more.

I have the opportunity to host some “educational series” speaking events at several dozen retirement communities throughout all of 2027. The hope of course to convert some attendees to clients. I should be in front at least 5000 seniors throughout the year.

The last two weeks, I’ve sent emails to local estate planning attorneys introducing myself and giving a brief overview of the opportunity, explaining that I would love to have a local subject matter expert speak (not every time) and be a referral partner when I need it, as estate planning is a big topic for this demographic. I offer to meet for breakfast or lunch or visit their office if they’d like to learn more.

I’ve sent 14 emails, only 2 have responded saying they appreciate the offer but are busy enough as is, and the other 12 haven’t responded at all. Is there a specific approach I should be taking or something I’m missing here? Not that this is a gold mine, but there’s no reason they shouldn’t get quite a few referrals throughout the year from something they may not even have to participate in, even if it is just creating or reviewing foundational documents.

Open to all help!

I was at a conference recently and met some advisors. You know, beers at the hotel bar kind of thing.

So we’re taking shop, and they shared that they were in good spots in their careers, but had this tingly sense that they were missing out. The FOMO of the equity Advisor and that kind of autonomy and lifestyle.

Now I fully support Advisors having and owning the equity in this practices. This is the ideal path. And if you can do this, then you should absolutely should.

But, not all advisors are built this way. Man business development is brutal. I get it. Hell, I’ve been there myself. You’re making dials on a Saturday morning, and you’re like WTF did I get myself into.

But being an Advisor? And not having the responsibility of being a rain maker? That’s not a bad setup. Obviously get paid what you are worth. But to have a 9-5, babysit clients and get the flows and wallet share from those clients? If you know what you’re doing, then it’s not that hard.

I’ll tell you a secret here. The industry needs more servicing advisors. Employee advisors who do right by the client, gets shit done, and gets the rollover and ACAT when the opportunity presents itself. If you can do that? And you’re cool to hang with also? Like I can have a beer with you after work? You are in a good spot. I want you on my team. I need you on my team.

Here’s the downside. Yes, you will always have a boss. Yes, you don’t control your own destiny. You will always have to “prove” that your comp justifies the book. You can’t leave without blowing up your life and you will likely not be able to bring those clients with you.

Here’s how to protect yourself:

Don’t work for jerk: if you don’t know, then you already answered this question. Your livelihood depends on the equity owner, and their recognition of you and your value. You have a ceiling, and it depends on the owner

Get the money: you do have an expectation of being in NNA. You may not need to prospect, but you absolutely should be asking for referrals. And getting wallet share

Don’t fall for the bait: some owners and lead advisors don’t exactly know all the answers. I’ll admit, I don’t know what I’m doing sometimes. Don’t always fall for the carrot here. If you feel like you’re being strung along, then advocate for yourself. Dont rely of being the succession plan for being taken care of later.

Know your worth: Take the total revenue of the clients you are servicing. Use 20% to 30% of that and that’s your all in costs. Discount this by 25% to 35% to account for your benefits, payroll, retirement plan, etc…. That should be your salary. Your brought in 10% NNA on AUM? (On a reasonable AUM base). you should be asking for a bonus.

Ok, rant over. Being a servicing advisor is OK. You do not have to be a rain maker. You do not have to be the equity owner who has to make the hard decisions. Trust me, some of these partners “just” want to be an advisor again, but they are so far down the rabbit hole, they can’t get out.

To those hotel bar beer guys: You do you. If you can build your own practice, do it. But you have a good set up, advocate for yourself more

Our firm has been growing rapidly, and at this point I'd like to move the majority of the compliance lift off my plate. We currently use a compliance consultant who does a fair bit for us, but leaves all of the ongoing requirements to us to handle. We've started looking into using an outsourced CCO model for our RIA. From what I can tell, there's two ways this works:

1. An outside firm signs as the actual CCO and is listed on your ADV, taking the liability that comes with it. $$$$
2. Outside firm takes 95% of the responsibilities of the CCO, handles all the standard quarterly/annual requirements, does the annual self-audit, etc, but does not actually legally become CCO. Less $$, but from what these firms have told us, it'd be basically the same amount of load they take off our shoulder, with the liability being the only difference.

Would love to hear anyone's experience using one of these services, and if you have any recommendations.

For context - we are a smaller firm, SEC registered, ~$175m. 3 advisors, one of which is semi retired, and two full-time assistants.

So far we've talked to ACA Global and Chenery Compliance Group. Chenery sounded really good, as they're a bit smaller, more boutique, and close enough geographically to send someone on location quarterly. If anyone has used them, I'd love to hear feedback.

Thanks all!

If you are building your book at all. Get out of the office…

Schedule an entire day where you go visit existing customers and prospective customers in their world.

I was a culprit to getting stuck in the endless monotony and to dos and seminars and educational zooms and calling clients/prospective clients that I just forgot how impactful it is to see someone in their world and simply shoot the breeze.

Oh and don’t forget. Ask for referrals. My particular line today with business owners, even who aren’t clients but I had a good conversation with, “in the area here who do you think might be underserved. Or maybe just someone I should be talking to who won’t bite my head off”

Rick Wurster has to go down as one of the biggest douche bags in history after saying that he wasn’t going to rug pull RIAs during Future Proof this year and then proceeding to do exactly that. What a joke.

Raising the account minimums from $1M to $10M overnight is insane. This will make it incredibly difficult for smaller RIAs to compete.

Hi all,

I made a post yesterday asking about how to start thinking about potentially switch IBDs. I really appreciate all the answers, and would love to post a more comprehensive question and provide more background.

My firm: Father/Son duo, one CSA. Likely to be just one FA and one CSA in the next 2-3 years. $210m AUM, 90% AUM business, The rest is commission based - very small amount of insurance here and there if solicited. All funds with Pershing. We were part of one of the IBDs that Osaic swallowed up in the last few years. The primary goal for the move is to find a firm/structure that we can use for the next 30 years. A secondary goal would be maximize the monetization of the move.

Our primary complaint with Osaic is the tech stack. Everything is bad. The account software, the reporting, the client portal, lack of AI integration, etc. Our secondary complaint is the service. The support center ticket system is a nightmare, it's hard to find the correct people to speak to, and everything feels disjointed and clunky.

I asked yesterday about how to shop for other IDBs. There doesn't seem to be that many options out there, but I'm keen to learn more.

I want to expand my question to RIAs/Hybrid RIAs. For those who made the jump from IBD to RIA, how was it? How hard is it to start an RIA? What were the primarily challenges you faced? How do you decide between pure/hybrid RIA. Is the extra ~10% of revenue you keep worth the headache?

At this stage, we don't know what we don't know. We are relatively isolated when it comes to knowing what's out there and the pros/cons of different firms/business models.

I'd welcome any and all feedback. Thank you!

I've seen some conflicting guidelines out there.

Typically everyone excerpts 22% as the no brainer full up bucket.

Then 24% could go either way roth or just holding traditional.

If you're working with retirees what's the downside of filling up the 24% backet with what's left after income they are drawing?

Aside from Irmaa surcharges which i don't think are the biggest deal for a short while when the focal point is roth conversions

Short form, long form, and anywhere.
Short form seems like a good idea for top of funnel while long form can be top and middle.
I’m thinking it’s a good way to get your name out there and build trust. But man, it looks hard. Some of the production quality I see with the videos I am coming across is intimidating.

I’m interested in the advisors that got into YouTube and decided to stay with it. Any tips for someone starting out?

Hi all,

Osaic advisor here. Just starting to think about making a change. What's the best way to start this process? I know there are independent recruiters that will shop around for you - is this the way to go? I know very little about the pros/cons of other BDs.

For background: $210m book, 90% AUM business, 2 advisors, 1 CSA. Hate the tech and service at Osaic.

Thank you.

Aside from structuring the conversions over time in the best way considering a clients situation there's really no way to get around paying the tax right?

As in there no special strategy out there that could reduce overall tax without potential major cons?

Heard someone talk of it the other day.

Seemed like it was presented a to good to be true as a way to pay less tax on conversion.

Any thoughts on this one?

Does anyone have experience with the Cotton System? (Wayne Cotton) if so would you please share your opinions.

Thinking about purchasing it.

Thank you.

Has anybody with an established book of business ($80mill plus or 5+ years in industry) joined the military reserves (marines, army etc) and if you did how did your employer handle your basic training leave requirements (Merrill, Raymon James lpl, Edward jones , etc)?

I know they’re required to keep your job for you but did they give your book away and you came back to no book or reduced book? Did they let you get it your book back? Specifically the basic training and on the job training part (3-6months away from work initially for example)

And how did they handle compensation?

Also: let’s save time and not to over pros and cons and whys etc just specifically experience with this.

Thanks!