The Greatest Opportunity for Advisors

The Advisor in the future understands that the position of “Financial Advisor” is completely replaceable by the industry. Institutions have proven this to be true year-over-year by paying a price for all assets acquired. For every asset that comes in the door there is a percentage paid… This is a net interest margin industry and the net interest margin is partially controlled by dropping the laggard advisor or restructuring of payout packages and compensation grids. That is the way the game has always been played. It’s all about net interest margin. If the institution can increase NIM by replacing you with a robot they absolutely will not hesitate to do so. Your position in this industry is not a job in which your employer wants to help you by giving you a salary for a job well done so you can live comfortably and provide for your family. The industry is concerned first with shareholder value (or enterprise value) and getting higher valuations as well as increasing net interest margin. It’s just business. Capitalism in it’s purest form. When you come to terms with this concept you are afforded the clarity necessary to see your business from a perspective that crystallizes your unique opportunity in the financial services industry.

This industry offers the greatest opportunity in the history of the world for the serious steward of wealth because you can create your own business from any vantage point by which you see fit. As long as you can gather assets you can play in the game. You can gather assets in an unlimited amount of ways… ways which are innumerable… uncountable… the opportunity is only limited by your creativity. Which is why it is so critical to look at your business from a fresh perspective from time to time. Think about this statement for a moment… transparency is not solely for the good of the client. We will come back to this statement.

To be offered the opportunity to create your own business after you pick up your licenses is one of the rarest opportunities in this world. It’s beyond special. You are in an elite category of individuals that have ever been charged with the stewardship of the well being of your fellow man. Big shoes to fill… great responsibility… Let’s look at your business from a fresh perspective again… Think about this… If you are not willing to invest in your business what does that say about the quality of your commitment? We will come back to this. 

You owe it to your clients to remain relevant but you owe it to your clients and yourself to become irreplaceable. If you are not able to focus on how you will remain relevant and become irreplaceable in this industry you will become lost… you will become commoditized… and you will be squeezed out. Capitalism in it’s purest form. So often advisors are focused on the daily mechanics of doing business that they become lost… unable to focus on the activities that create demand for their services advisors can easily get caught in a deadly trap which creates stagnation due to a myopic perspective they have about their business. Think about this question… Are you willing to let your clients be led astray by a self-serving advisor who simply sells products in a vacuum?
The opportunity to see and feel your authentic relevant value and create a sustainable business model designed around the well being of your clients is available. You can become the master of your destiny if you are willing to take a step back from your business and see it from another dimension. If you agree that being a serious steward of wealth is the greatest opportunity… in the greatest business in the world… in the greatest time to be a financial advisor that has ever existed… then you can and should become irreplaceable. If you are willing to see transparency in the digital age as resource and not a liability… then you can and should become irreplaceable. If you are inclined to invest in your business and you agree that you must  invest your time before you invest your money… then you can and will become irreplaceable by becoming a serious steward of wealth. You will be enabling yourself to give the care and the commitment your clients rightfully deserve. To become a serious steward of wealth, by design,  you must own the words that define your authentic relevant value. Take a minute to become irreplaceable for the good of your clients and for the sustainability of your business by taking full advantage of the complementary Tangible Alpha minute modules and notebook available here.

Keep it Tangible,

Grant Barger