Blog

2012 is now behind us and for the most part it seemed to be a pretty 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. By far the biggest lever you can pull is your firm’s human capital. From this perspective, you need each member of your team at the top of their game for 2013. Here is a list of New Year’s resolutions ...

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Last month, we reviewed several common personality assessments used in hiring that measured the Affective (Feeling) and to some extent the Cognitive (Thinking) parts of the mind. This month we will examine the leading assessment that measures the Conative (Doing) part of the mind. You may not be as familiar with this one because the others are more widely discussed and commercialized. Nonetheless, having an idea of how someone prefers to take action is just as important a factor in the ...

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When recruiting new employees, I often get questions about the validity, structure, and cost of various personality assessments. This month, we will take a look at some of the most common assessments that I come across and administer.  Keep in mind, I am not the developer of these tools and have no affiliations with these companies. I am simply providing a general overview, based on my experiences and use of these tools. So why use personality assessments at all? Contrary to some popular ...

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Last month, we explored what candidates were seeking in growth opportunities by looking at an excerpted dialogue exchange I have been having frequently with candidates recently (see http://bit.ly/GrwthOppPart1). This month we examine specific characteristics firm owners should be providing in their new planner positions to help ensure the new planner doesn’t have to leave the organization for the career growth they seek. The most important distinction we see between the firms that effectively ...

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The impetus for this month’s post is the recent deluge of individuals who have reached out to me expressing frustration over “lack of growth opportunities” in their position at their current firm.  It’s not uncommon for candidates to reach out to me to “see what else is out there.”  What is interesting is the similarity of the recent conversations and the sense that the underlying, well documented, issue might soon have a larger impact than once thought.  So in this two part post we will first ...

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Last month we discussed what expectations are generally unreasonable for a new planner hire and this month we look at what firm owners SHOULD expect from their new planner.  As I mentioned last month, not all new financial planners are equal. Also I have previously written on how the educational experiences between CFP Board registered programs can vary widely. http://bit.ly/NewPlnrExppart1 Nonetheless it’s reasonable to have some solid, but realistic expectations for a good candidate that ...

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Throughout my career I have witnessed firm owners’ frustrations with new planners they have hired or were interviewing. Their frustrations stem from lack of clarity on what type of education a new planner receives and what can be expected of them. Also, firm owners sometimes don’t know what role they are trying to fill so they are left with trying to hire for a catch-all position resulting in unclear roles and responsibilities, and unreasonable expectations. We will start this two-part ...

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In this month’s post, we pick up where we left off last month with a look at how firm owners can integrate their new planner into the final three stages of the financial planning process to help ensure that the CFP® certification can be gained in two years versus three.  If you missed last month’s post addressing the first three steps in the planning process, it can be found here http://bit.ly/attractingtop Step 4: Developing and Presenting Financial Planning Recommendations and/or ...

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Last month, the CFP Board of Standards released updated guidelines for the work experience requirement for the CFP® certification - essentially creating a ‘fast track’ to certification by reducing the experience requirement from three years down to two years if candidates for CFP® certification (new planners) work under a CFP® certificant and personally deliver all parts of the personal financial planning process to a client. You can click here http://bit.ly/CFPboard2yrs to read the full press ...

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Last month I shared my recent recruiting trip highlights and in this month’s post I want to explore the variations between the different types of CFP Board registered programs in more detail. For those not familiar there are actually two types of CFP Board registered programs: Degree and Certificate. Here is a general description of both: Certificate programs generally provide the CFP Board financial planning curriculum on a standalone basis, for which the individual simply receives a ...

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Last month, I took seven plane flights, stayed in three hotels, and rented three cars to visit five CFP Board registered programs: St. Joseph’s, William Paterson, Virginia Tech, Texas Tech and Winthrop University. It was my own little version of planes, trains and automobiles! During these visits, I presented to twelve classes, gave two keynote speeches, spoke to a dozen PhDs (faculty members, college deans, and program chairs), and interviewed a few dozen students. Below are some notable ...

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I’ve written and spoken at length about the mistakes new planners make when trying to find their right fit including hearing only what they want to hear, thinking every opening is a good fit, assuming if something isn’t addressed in negotiations it will mysteriously work out as they had envisioned, etc. However firm owners are not blameless and make mistakes, too, which is why I want to share April Joyner’s article in the November 2011 issue of Inc. magazine entitled “Hiring traps: Why is it so ...

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