Articles Written by Jon Henschen

How to Avoid Compliance Policies That Cater To the Lowest Denominator

00:00 01 May in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

by Jonathan Henschen, CFS and featured in AdvisorBiz May, 2010: The past two years have been unlike anything I've seen since entering the financial services industry. Regulations have become increasingly labor-intensive, while broker-dealers are on the defensive; doing everything they can to shield themselves from the potential liability of their own advisors. Regulations in our industry are seldom black and white. Plenty of room has been left, for example, for broker-dealers to decide how advisors are supervised, or how marketing materials are approved, or the complexity of business paperwork. The ideal scenario is when advisors are with firms that do what financial services regulators require, but not much more. Problems arise, however, when broker-dealers experience certain triggers that end up making their advisors' lives much more difficult. Here are a few examples of those...

Making the Most of Home Office Visits

00:00 01 October in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

by Jonathan Henschen, CFS and featured in Broker/Dealer Journal October, 2008: When financial advisors consider changing broker/dealers, they’ll often visit prospective firms to see who’s the best fit and most interested in them, and which ones can be crossed off their list. That makes planning and managing Home Office visits for advisor prospects a very big deal for a firm’s recruiting effort. The same goes for advisors. Before booking flights all over the country, for instance, advisors should find out what production requirements broker/dealers require to cover the costs of these excursions, which can mount up in a hurry. Expense reimbursement requirements for airfare, ground transportation and hotels vary, but $150,000 in GDC (Gross Dealer Concessions) is a common figure industry-wide. This is not to discourage advisors to forget firms wanting more than...

Attracting High-End Advisors: Top Seven Recruiting Channels

00:00 01 August in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

by Jonathan Henschen, CFS and featured in Broker/Dealer Journal August, 2008: How firms present themselves is crucial if they want to attract higher-end reps. While a wide variety of recruiting channels are available to broker/dealers—and some firms get by with one or two while others rely on several–the recruiting results achieved by any given firm at any given time are all too often decidedly mixed. In most cases, we find what’s missing is knowing how to do the right things the right way. Top Seven Recruiting Channels Because of that, I’ve narrowed my list of top broker/dealer recruiting channels to these seven: Internal Recruiters Wholesaler Referrals Print Ads and Mailers Internet Search Leads Website Leads Advisor Referrals Third-Party Recruiters In the following, I suggest how best to use each of those top seven recruiting channels: How to avoid the common mistakes we see...