BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017 - 14

FEATURE STORY

Recruitment and retention of
institutional programs and advisors
is - and always has been -
the lifeblood of our industry,"
said Rummel.

volumes of financial institutions than
ever before exploring a push into retail
financial advice."
One way to grow the headcount, according to Peter Bielan, a principal of
Kehrer Bielan, is to lengthen the timeline used to onboard new advisors.
"Most recruitment packages being used
today are a financial exercise looking
for a quick return on investment and
last only one year," explained Bielan.
"And guess what happens after the
package expires? Many advisors leave
for another firm. So all that expense
and all that work that went into training that new advisor is lost and the
process starts over again."
To be truly effective, onboarding packages should last two to three years,

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according to Bielan. "After three years
with your firm, a new advisor will be
contributing to revenue in a meaningful
way and is much more likely to stick
with your firm because he or she has
been set up for success."

Changing onboarding packages may be
a good tactical solution, but a longerterm answer is to develop advisors
from within the financial institution,
suggested Mummau.

The study also pointed the finger at
uncertainty surrounding the DOL's onagain, off-again fiduciary duty rule.

Developing
Talent Within

"That's part of it," said Mummau. Some
banks turned their compensation
protocols upside down because of the
looming presence of the DOL rule,
eliminating all transaction business,
a knee-jerk reaction, in his view, that
resulted in many advisors "flying the
coop." The purpose of the rule was not
to make everything fee-based - eliminating all transactional business, which
wouldn't be good for all clients.

Some advisors have huge books of
business, said Mummau, so it often
behooves banks and credit unions to
bring in junior advisors to help these
senior FAs to deal with parts of their
books of business. Find prospects
imbued with a sales aptitude and let
them apprentice under a senior advisor,
a mentor. CFS has used this sort of
sales process training for some years.
One lesson learned: A good advisor
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BISA Magazine - Quarter 3, 2017
