InvestmentNews Article: Growing your Firm for the Future
Not all growth is created equal. Back 30 years ago, most of today’s successful advisers were recent college grads who, in a trial by fire, went to work for a wire house or insurance giant and either found a way to survive, or got driven out of the sector.
But times change.
Independent advisory firms are a force, but stagnation is rampant, and for most of our sector, growth is almost entirely due to the strong market.
You must show organic growth so you can someday retire and sell for a premium price. And what is the best way to achieve that growth?
From the article:
The best way advisers can grow their practices and increase the value of their firms is not by picking winning investments, nor does it have much to do with improving technology. Nope. The #1 thing advisers can do to grow is to bring on new clients.
But most advisers have hit a growth ceiling because, along with staff and facilities management, the time they used to spend networking and acquiring new assets is now devoted to the management of existing clients and picking investments. That is why, when you look at the data (after you subtract market performance), over the last 10 years, many of the firms we audit for partnerships have experienced no actual growth.
Scott Hanson, Co-Founder, Allworth Financial