What Your Last 3 Hires Say About Your Firm
Few corners of our industry lean into the sales pitch as much as firms recruiting advisors. We’ve all seen the headlines. Teams are racing to grow by acquisition, especially if they can attract PE money and make a grand exit.
It leaves a lot of advisors scared to commit. You invest hours on hours and other resources in the decision to move–just to find out the sales pitch was just as sales pitch.
One of the biggest parts of my job is separating out what’s just spin. To help with that, here’s one of my favorite questions.
Tell me about your last three hires.
This simple question can provide profound insights—not just into a firm’s culture (which is notoriously hard to define), but into its priorities, strategic direction, and where it chooses to invest resources.
Most of the advisors I work with are fiercely independent or aspiring to be. They’re often leaving big box firms like Edward Jones or making moves out of independent firms with decaying value propositions. In short, they’re tired of fitting into someone else’s box.
When I ask a firm about its recent hires, I’m looking for clues: Were those hires in compliance? Marketing? Virtual paraplanning? Were they roles that truly add value to advisors and help them grow their practices?
Understanding Priorities Through Hiring
Your hiring decisions paint a clear picture of what’s important to your firm. Are you investing in positions that directly impact your advisors’ growth? Or are your hires more focused on areas that don’t touch your advisors’ day-to-day lives unless they pay extra for ancillary services?
For larger firms, this balance is more forgiving—they can afford to hire broadly. But smaller or mid-sized firms face a challenge.
Hiring for roles that don’t meaningfully support your advisors can lead to a lack of customization and intimacy, which are often key selling points for smaller firms. If the resources you’re adding don’t help your advisors grow or solve their business challenges, then you’re not truly helping them succeed.
Tailoring Resources to Advisor Needs
When an advisor needs marketing support, for example, they want someone with the right expertise—someone who can deliver impactful results. Compliance and pricing are foundational, but if those are the only areas in which your firm excels, you’re not addressing the broader needs of your advisors.
Strategic hiring reveals a lot about your firm’s alignment with its advisors. By evaluating where your resources go, advisors can determine whether partnering with you will help them achieve their goals or leave them to fill in the gaps themselves.
A Final Thought
Every firm has its unique challenges and priorities, but the types of hires you make speak volumes about your commitment to serving your advisors. Advisors don’t just want a firm with strong operational fundamentals—they want a partner that empowers them to thrive.
And, if this all sounds exhausting, this is what I do to help advisors narrow down firms that have the financial strength, culture, and support they want to drive their growth. Want to see how I help advisors?
Schedule a fully confidential call to see how the process works.