SO, YOU ARE THINKING
OF MAKING A MOVE
“ “you don’t get paid to stay, you get paid to move.”
”
You owe it to yourself, your family, and your clients to seize opportunities that materially advance your career. The will to move can make you a success. A good move will increase your wealth. It will assure a better personal lifestyle. It will bring you peace of mind. We all know,
Every opportunity comes with challenges. Successful financial advisers usually have agreements not to solicit their clients if they move. Frequently, a forgivable promissory note has been awarded to the adviser for excellent performance. Sometimes, the adviser has been granted equity with buyback strings attached.These devices are designed to inhibit your upward mobility by stopping you from moving toward opportunity. The right move can make your career. The wrong move can destroy it. Good advice is the best way to avoid a bad move.
WHAT CAN HAPPEN?
Without the benefit of good advice a lot can go wrong. Customers, money and careers can be lost. The best laid plans can go awry. Quiet confidence can turn into loud panic. In a recent article James R. Miller illustrated a very real scenario:
““How then could Old Bank be suing them for $10 million and a restraining order?””
Financial Advisor Knewt Freeman couldn’t believe it when the Sheriff walked in. He, his new firm and two of his best friends that had come with him, were restrained without notice from soliciting the clients they had served for years. Worse, they and their new firm, ABC Independent, had been sued for $10 million dollars. Knewt’s career was dead!
Just moments before things had been going so smoothly. Knewt had resigned last Friday and spent the weekend contacting his clients and helping them move to ABC Independent. Better still, Knewt, whose production had been 29% of his branch at Old Bank, had convinced his two best friends, Jan and Jane, to move over. They knew that this might hurt their old branch because they accounted for over 45% of the production of the branch, but that was the business risk that Old Bank took when it underpaid them. They all slept well during their transition, because they had complied with the Protocol, and both Old Bank and ABC are Protocol members. They were safe and off to a great start. How then could Old Bank be suing them for $10 million and a restraining order?
From, James R. Miller, Bad Move-Being Part of A Raid, Advisorhub (September 2019).
The Protocol For Broker Recruiting does not provide the protection that was intended for moving financial advisers even if both firms are members. The Protocol has many nuances and there are many temptations to deviate from the path it charts for those who would move. Likewise, the Protocol does not help with forgivable promissory notes or equity buybacks. It does not help with ongoing regulatory investigations of transitioning advisers or their form U-5. Finally, The Protocol For Broker Recruiting carves out an exception for “Raiding”. No one can precisely define what a “Raid” is or is not. This significantly increases the risk of a move for top producers and teams of top producers.
There are many financial advisers who would like to move that are not employed by a Protocol member firm. Likewise, there are advisers that have an excellent opportunity to move to a non-protocol firm. These financial advisers are not frozen in a career purgatory. These financial advisers can move if they manage the movement risks through good advice. After all, before the Protocol For Broker Recruiting, financial advisers moved all the time! They simply managed the risk of moving through good advice.
WE CAN HELP
Don’t lose sleep over an opportunity.
““Financial advisers have been moving since the profession began””
The challenges that are part of your decision to move can be managed. Financial advisers have been moving since the profession began. They have been moving since well before the Protocol For Broker Recruiting was even conceived. James R. Miller has been a trial lawyer for 47 years. The great majority of those years have been spent helping financial advisors. He has been paid by Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones and others to help financial advisers move. When you call Miller Riggs, they will be the architect of your transition.
We will partner with you to insure your transition is as risk free as it can be. We can assist with Protocol and Non-Protocol transitions. We can reduce the risks associated with: agreements not to solicit customers, forgivable promissory notes and equity buybacks. We can ameliorate transitions affected by ongoing regulatory or compliance investigations. We can help negotiate the content of your form U-5. We are Protocol ” Raiding'' experts.
Our risk reduction approach is comprehensive. We can help you with: what to take and what not to take before, during and after your transition; how to deal with your personal property; when and how to resign; the critical content of your letter of resignation; what to do if you have already violated the Protocol; what to do if your exit plan is discovered by management; how to contact your clients and exactly what to say; what you must not say; what to do if you are being defamed by your former firm; and a host of other critical elements. We can arrange for industry savvy legal counsel in your state to be standing by to minimize litigation risk.
We believe it is our role to take the worry out of your transition. We are very good at what we do. Don’t lose sleep over an opportunity. Partner with us.