| Topic Name: |
Merrill FA - 15-20MM goal |
| Message Name: |
Merrill 15-20m goal in 24 months |
| Date Posted: |
02/24/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
Honestly, in order to be successful in this game...your goals should be at least 15-22m. Keep in mind that after 2 yrs you're living off fee based business so do the math.
Not to scare you but when I started w/ Morgan Stanley 3 yrs ago, 27 trainees were in my branch. When I left 6 months ago (for Smith Barney) only I and one other girl were still there. 25 trainees either quit or were fired. I??m still friends w/ four of the guys I started out with. Three are out of the game all together and the fourth managed to get into IB as an analyst (no sales). From the day you get that ??can sell date?? its game on! Imagine horses leaving the gate at a race track. Don??t waste any time and hit it hard. I can't stress this enough.
That said cold calling isn't going to get you 15-20 m. Its funny hiring managers even bring it up during the interview process. If you??re under the impression you??re going to buy some leads, lists or some sort of data base forget it. The higher net worth clients your going to need (to hit 15-22m) are not sold by telemarketing. Take some time and put together a solid business plan. Figure out a nitch then Network and ask for referrals. Also, team up w/ a Sr Broker if possible. Call on his book and focus on generating referrals. But be careful and protect your ass when negotiating a split with him.
Good choice on Merrill! Smith Barney has been great so don't rule them out.
Best of luck
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| Message: |
Thank you very much for your impute,
I have heard that the process is extremely difficult, and the success ratio, according to the managers is roughly 30% out of 100%, others say it??s more like 5-10% success ratio. I am searching or waiting to hear from a Merrill Lynch financial advisor who recently has gone through this process.
My plan of attack is to initially build the business by cold calling. Opening roughly 150 accounts within 24 months, average account size would be $135K, which would equate to roughly $20 million.
Also, it seems that most people that succeed in this industry, either come from wealth or already have a very strong network that they can target. I hope that that??s not really the case.
Something else doesn??t make any sense, if the success ratio is so low, doesn??t Merrill eventually lose money on bringing all these new financial advisor, paying them any where from $40-100K base, plus bonus??s, commissions etc, and still only 10% or 20% end up succeeding. I can understand that if the average new broker that gets in the program and fails to reach the goals, but only brings in, lets say, on average $7 million, then Merrill still ends up with the bigger hand. Because I would pay $150-200K for a $7 million book. Actually, still $7 million is still not profitable for Merrill, I just thought about it, there are several other expenses that they cover. So, now this really doesn??t make any sense.
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