Latest news with #advisors
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Succession planning and the 'risk no firm can afford'
A new study highlights a significant flaw in wealth management firms' recruitment and development strategies for the next generation of financial advisors: a lack of succession planning. The study, conducted by Kestra Financial and Bluespring Wealth Partners, surveyed 269 practice owners and senior advisors about their approach to succession planning. Researchers found that 94% of owners were missing at least one essential element for a successful transition, such as developing a timeline or outlining equity offerings for potential successors. "While owners and successors each have a vision of opportunity, they often operate with different assumptions and unclear expectations," the report's authors wrote. "Owners tend to feel confident, while many intended successors feel stuck, undervalued and uncertain — some even on the verge of walking away. In an industry facing a scarcity of next-generation talent, that's a risk no firm can afford." READ MORE: How this RIA jumped two succession hurdles at once Retention among advisors seen as prospective successors was significantly impacted by their perceptions of the practice owner's succession preparedness. Among advisors intending to remain at their current practice, 66% believe the practice owner is prepared or very prepared for retirement and a leadership transition. In contrast, only 22% of those uncertain about staying feel the practice owner is similarly prepared. "He tells me I'm his succession plan. But there's a lot of holes with what we have. I feel like I'm a free agent still," a prospective successor told researchers. "Sometimes you need to leave to be taken seriously." A majority of owners (53%) said that finding advisors who are aligned with their own values is the biggest challenge when it comes to succession planning. While many prospective successors are motivated by equity and earning potential, owners say that client care is their chief concern when thinking about succession planning. "The difficulty of finding a successor that matches your style of managing your client base — I think that's the hardest part," an advisory owner told researchers. Some 43% of owners rank client care as their top priority in planning for retirement, ahead of maximizing their practice valuation (23%) or ensuring their employees are taken care of (15%). READ MORE: The 'fundamental' talent shortage looming over wealth management But in practice, all of those factors affect each other, according to Pradeep Jayaraman, CEO of Bluespring Wealth Partners. "Imagine if you're a very successful owner running a great business, but with no succession plan. Your business is only as good as it can be while you are involved, right? Once you retire, who's going to carry on with the legacy of the business? To me, that's the biggest implication," Jayaraman said. "Ultimately, businesses that have succession planning figured out are going to make sure that the clients are going to be taken care of, the staff is going to be taken care of and, ultimately, there is going to be a significant correlation with how they're going to get valued as an enterprise if they decide to sell." Paul Feinstein, the CEO of Audent Global Asset Management in Los Angeles, said that many owners who lack a complete succession plan are simply confused about what to do. "That is a different, very large task and is fundamentally apart from the day-to-day work advisors have been doing for decades as they grow their business," Feinstein said. "Most advisor owners won't know what the checklist looks like to satisfy 'fully documented,' and they need to start learning immediately." Beyond value alignment, creating a complete succession plan can involve a variety of material and psychological roadblocks. Many owners in the study expressed difficulty with letting go of a business that they built, even if they understood the necessity of succession planning. "The business is something you started yourself and built. It's really hard to say goodbye," one owner told researchers. "It's hard to give up control. It's hard to leave something that's part of you. It's who you are." Simultaneously, many potential successors said they feel like they're not given the opportunities to take on firm-level leadership, particularly in strategic planning and business financials — the exact skills necessary for them to eventually assume ownership. For owners and advisors looking to start or improve their succession planning, Jayaraman pointed to four key areas, including opening up communication, offering leadership opportunities, laying out a clear succession plan and creating a path for distributing equity in the practice. READ MORE: How financial advisor compensation is crucial to succession and M&A In the study, 1 in 3 successor prospects said they would consider leaving their current practice without a clear succession timeline. And 1 in 4 said they would consider leaving without being given equity or a timeline for receiving equity. "Nothing empowers somebody like [equity]," Jayaraman said. "I have skin in the game and I own a piece of the business." Poor succession planning also has implications for attracting up-and-coming talent, Feinstein said. "A top-tier young talent is going to look for stability and proper planning before joining an advisory firm headed by an advisor nearing the last few years before retirement," Feinstein said. "Can that advisor convince young talent that the transition through a sale of the business will be advantageous for them on their journey to a strong book of business? If the answer is no, then the lack of succession planning has hurt the advisor's business by restricting access to the best talent." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Succession Planning Vacuum Risks Alienating RIA Clients, Next-Gen Leaders
What's the plan? Well, nobody seems to know. With a massive wave of retirements hitting the wealth management industry over the next decade, succession planning might seem like a top priority. However, just 6% of advisors nearing the end of their full-time careers have a fully documented succession plan, according to a report from Kestra Financial and Bluespring Wealth Partners. If they don't figure out their strategies soon, potential successors could be walking out the door while clients scramble to find new help. 'Succession planning is about choosing someone who will not only guide the firm into the future but also uphold the same high standard of care clients have come to rely on,' said Pradeep Jayaraman, president of Bluespring Wealth Partners. It's critical for protecting clients, creating better career paths, retaining talent, and increasing enterprise value, he said. READ ALSO: Morningstar's CEO Kunal Kapoor on Private Assets and 'Extracting Gold' and Family Offices Explore Private Credit as Private Equity Returns Stall It's not that principal advisors aren't trying to craft succession plans. Many, however, are hitting road blocks and finding that their visions for their businesses may be misaligned with those of potential successors. While owners feel confident that they're ready to walk away from their firms, the next generation of advisors often feel stuck, undervalued and not sure if they'll even stick around, the report found: More than three-quarters of principal advisors have not mapped a timeline for transitioning client relationships, and just around 60% haven't given any company equity to their successors. Meanwhile, next-gen advisors are frustrated, with roughly half saying they don't have a good sense of when their principals will retire, and one in three are willing to consider leaving in the absence of a clear succession timeline. Principal advisors should be transparent with successors and provide training on how to run an entire firm, not just typical advisor duties like financial planning and investment management, Jayaraman told Advisor Upside. 'Delaying these efforts risks talent and client loss, and erodes firm value,' he said. Play by the Rules. Advisors can close up shop whenever they want, but leaving clients in the lurch without instructions for transitioning assets or choosing a new advisor would go against the golden rule of acting in their best interests. Abandoning clients and contractual commitments might result in regulatory, legal, and reputational issues, said Greg Cornick, president of Advice & Wealth Management at Osaic. 'Having a formal succession plan is just plain smart and a professional responsibility of any advisor,' he told Advisor Upside. This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive financial advisor news, market insights, and practice management essentials, subscribe to our free Advisor Upside newsletter.
Travel Weekly
2 days ago
- Travel Weekly
Advisors: Share your craziest client story for a report in Travel Weekly
Travel Weekly is collecting advisors' stories for a published report about the craziest requests their clients have made. Did they ask to travel with an emotional support aardvark? Need a flock of a dozen white doves released at their destination wedding? Something else entirely? We want to hear about it and how you handled the situation. Send us your story. The best stories, which may be edited for length and clarity, will be published in a future report in Travel Weekly.
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
RJF Arm Partners FNZ to Boost Wealth Management Offerings in Canada
Raymond James Ltd., a subsidiary of Raymond James Financial Inc. RJF, has agreed to enter into a strategic collaboration with FNZ, a global wealth management platform provider. As part of the agreement, Raymond James Ltd. will invest to accelerate the digital transformation of its wealth management systems and enhance the experience for both advisors and clients nationwide. Through the partnership, Raymond James Ltd. will leverage FNZ's comprehensive, fully integrated wealth management platform, a deliberate, forward-looking investment in modern infrastructure. Equipped with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven features, straight-through processing and advanced digital tools, the FNZ platform will enhance the firm's unique value proposition. The new platform features a digital-first, client-centric design that enhances efficiency, speed and personalization throughout the entire wealth cycle. Advisors will have access to a modern, user-friendly interface that enables deeper client interactions. Investors will enjoy enhanced digital experiences and real-time capabilities, all secured and powered by the high-performance FNZ platform. Jamie Coulter, CEO of Raymond James Ltd., said, 'As a client-first organization, we took the time to engage with our advisors, branch associates and clients to define the future of wealth management. This isn't just a technology upgrade—it's a quantum leap in the support we provide our advisors in their delivery of exceptional client service.' Rationale Behind the RJF Partnership This strategic investment reinforces Raymond James Ltd.'s position as a leading choice for top advisors across Canada, highlighting its commitment to innovation, advisor enablement, and outstanding client service. Aiming to establish itself as a financial technology and innovation leader, Raymond James plans to invest about $1 billion globally this fiscal year, with a solid emphasis on strengthening its information security infrastructure, including its specialized Cyber Threat Center. This aligns with the company's effort to boost its offerings. In May 2024, RJF announced that it had forayed into the lucrative private credit business through a partnership with Eldridge Industries to offer tailored financial solutions to private equity clients. In the past three months, shares of Raymond James have risen 6.4%, underperforming the 13.2% rise of the industry. Currently, Raymond James carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Strategic Collaborations by Other Finance Firms Earlier this month, Carlyle Group Inc. CG announced a collaboration with Citigroup Inc. C to expand asset-backed financing opportunities within the fintech specialty lending space. The collaboration will integrate Carlyle's extensive investment network with the expertise of Citigroup's Spread Products Investment in Technologies (SPRINT) team, a leading venture equity investor in fintech specialty lending. Similarly, U.S. Bancorp USB entered into a partnership with Fiserv to integrate its Elan Financial Services credit card program into Fiserv's Credit Choice solution. The collaboration aims to enhance digital card issuance capabilities, providing financial institutions with a seamless, integrated experience. The integration of Elan's credit card program into Fiserv's Credit Choice solution strengthens USB's digital-first strategy. This integration will enable consumers and small businesses to access both debit and credit card account details within a unified digital platform for consumers and small businesses. This will create a better user experience, allowing customers to manage both types of cards in one place. Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double" From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all. This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren't winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks' Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months. Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners Up Citigroup Inc. (C): Free Stock Analysis Report U.S. Bancorp (USB): Free Stock Analysis Report Raymond James Financial, Inc. (RJF): Free Stock Analysis Report Carlyle Group Inc. (CG): Free Stock Analysis Report
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AI Notetaker Jump Rolls Out Integration With RightCapital
You can find original article here Wealthmanagement. Subscribe to our free daily Wealthmanagement newsletter. If it works as touted, the announced integration between the popular artificial intelligence-powered notetaking platform Jump and financial planning application RightCapital will be a glimpse of what is yet to come in terms of improvements in advisor efficiency. The integration is now live and available without additional charge to those advisors who are customers of both companies. While the integration has bidirectional features, the immediate payoff for advisors will be to synchronize meeting insights parsed out by Jump's AI and then fed in to update the RightCapital platform without the need for manual input. 'We're constantly exploring new features and integrations that can remove time-consuming manual processes from advisor workloads,' wrote RightCapital founder and CEO Shuang Chen in an announcement. Among the household data tracked in RightCapital that Jump can offer updates to (pending advisor approval) would include expenses, family records, goals and incomes. There are also some new capabilities made possible by the integration. Once the integration has been turned on, advisors can take advantage of the generative features in Jump to query RightCapital about any data available in the financial planning software using natural language. The example used in the release is, 'Who is the beneficiary of Jill's 401(k)?' In addition, advisors getting ready for a client meeting can automatically pull RightCapital client data into Jump's Pre-Meeting Prep feature, and following a meeting, Jump, in turn, maps data from the latter into templates for RightCapital to be updated. Michael Brady, the president of Generosity Wealth Management and affiliated with Cambridge Investment Research, participated in the integration pilot. He was provided by Jump to discuss the partnership. 'JumpAI saves me time already, and with the new RightCapital integration, I'm able to save even more time by pushing information gleaned from my meeting right into a retirement update,' he wrote via email. 'Information captured in a phone call or meeting is immediately put to work without additional manual entry.' Jump has been in the news frequently this year. In May, it announced its partnership with Cetera, through which all 12,000 of the firm's advisors would have access to the application. In February, It announced a $20 million Series A funding round. Conquest Planning Raises $80M to Accelerate US Expansion Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
