Blog

Hiring and on-boarding new team members is a great way to increase the number of services you can offer and the number of clients you can service, but it can also be a lot of work and a challenging endeavor for those who don’t hire frequently. This month we interviewed Eric Sontag, COO of Sontag Advisory, who has a team of 45 staff members and over $5 billion in AUM. We chatted with Eric to discuss how he managed hiring what is now almost 22% of the firm’s workforce in just over a year, what ...

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In August, we reviewed some strategies for trying to retain an employee who you don’t want to leave.  This month we review some things you can do to get an employee to leave if you don’t want to terminate them directly. Sometimes firm owners don’t terminate under-performing team members when they need to because of the human nature to avoid conflict, hassles of HR process and red tape, and afraid of potential legal action/discrimination accusations that may be taken. In addition to these, it can ...

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Last month, we reviewed possible warning signs that your employees might be looking to leave. In this month’s article, we offer some suggestions and ideas for overcoming common reasons employees cite as their reason for leaving (which varies depending on whether they’re leaving the profession, or just leaving for another firm), in an effort to try and retain them. Assuming, of course, that you do not want them to leave in the first place! How To Stop An Employee From Leaving The ...

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Unexpectedly losing someone in your organization is an unfortunate way to quash your business’s momentum and can become especially challenging during the usually slower summer months. Team members who have considered leaving you in the past and put their career prospects on hold to take vacations with their families, are going to start having a lot more time to consider any tempting offers that come their way heading into the fall, as competing firms start planning out their human capital needs ...

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Years ago, when I started in this profession I remember firms doing some oddball things. One of them was hire someone after a brief meet and greet with very minimal interviewing and vetting.  This worked out for a few but was far from a best practice.   Mainly because there was scant time spent around assessing whether the candidate could perform the functions of the job or even knew what the job functions really were! Which is why we advocate for a strong position description and thorough ...

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Many readers of this newsletter contact me directly with questions, comments, thoughts, etc. And while the response we usually provide is specific to the situation sometimes it might be generic enough to be useful to others. This month we are going to address three frequently asked questions. So here you are, three for the price of one! What is the best way to interview candidates – Time kills the hiring process and the longer the process takes the chances of a successful hire diminish. In an ...

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Last month, we looked at the first of a two-part series for firms who may be struggling with various concerns centered around making a hiring decision.  This month, we review five more concerns hiring managers might have and what to do about them. They might ask for a raise each year. Compensating your team via a fair and incentivizing plan can alleviate much of this. Depending on the role a mix of base (guaranteed) compensation plus variable compensation on firm wide metrics as well ...

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If you have followed our newsletters, you know we are proponents of a thorough screening process. Because it’s easier to just not hire someone, than to have to fire them later! However, making great hires is like investing, in that you can reduce risks with proper planning, but can never eliminate them. You are always likely to have some concerns when making a hire. Yet at the same time, if you are dead set on holding out for the perfect candidate whom you have zero concerns with – you might ...

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As the holiday season winds down and the hiring season ramps up, this month’s article describes what financial planning firms should be doing to increase the likelihood a career seeker accepts their offer of employment. Because there’s nothing more frustrating than needing to restart the process from step 1 or having to go back to other candidates that clearly were not your frontrunner, because your top choice candidate rejects your offer! To say the least, a prospective candidate that declines ...

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2017 will soon be in the books and for the most part it seemed to be a very good year for a lot of you, so congrats! To continue to build upon these successes and avert the challenges facing our profession, it is increasingly necessary that you continue to fully utilize every asset at your disposal. And by far the biggest lever you can pull to increase the value of your assets is to improve your firm’s human capital. From this perspective, you need each member of your team to be at the top of ...

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Last time we looked at some do’s and don’ts when it pertains to offering ownership for potential hires and current team members.  This month, we will share the specifics from three, of the many, succession success stories we have observed working with financial planning firms on hiring and integrating new talent.  Below we lay out the details of how several candidates from various backgrounds and possessing a variety of skill sets were able to become owners in their respective firms. Success ...

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One of the benefits of the independent RIA model is the privately held nature of the business entity. Usually owned outright by one or more founding members of the firm, this structure uniquely positions firms under this model to add other equity owners, unlike other structures such as banks, brokerage, and wirehouses. This is advantageous to firms seeking to attract and retain the top talent needed for the firm to continue growing. In this month’s article, we look at some do’s and don’ts ...

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