spotlight
Those offering financial planning services say
that the criteria should include products and
services, the compensation structure, training,
technology and back-office support.
“Our recruiting efforts never really slowed
down that much,” revealed Roger Ochs, presi-
dent of Dallas-based broker-dealer H.D. Vest,
which has a network of 5,200 advisors from
the accounting and tax community. “We con-
tinue to make investments and tell our story
to CPAs and other tax professionals.”
Ochs said that Vest plans to bring on 450
advisors this year, and a further 650 in 2011,
with the “sweet spot” being small CPA firms
and sole practitioners.
“With 77 million Baby Boomers retiring
Reaching out to CPAs
BY BILL CARLINO
As the economy and client demand recover,
broker-dealers aim to sign up new advisors
may have slowed down for a year during the
economic crisis, but as a result, there’s been
pent-up demand, with clients asking for help
and CPA firms looking at mining different
streams of income.
“We derive our marketing plan on the
quality of the client base of firms. We look at
it and say, ‘ You should be doing x amount of
financial planning over the next three-to-five
years,’” she said. “We’re not in this business
to affiliate with firms that want to dabble in
it. We’re here to build an enterprise-level
practice and holistic wealth management
— not pick up that extra IRA rollover. We like
to say we turn numbers people into ‘people
people,’ those that can transition tax clients
With 77 million Baby
Boomers retiring, clients
are looking for advice.
over the next few years, clients of CPAs and
tax people are looking for advice. CPAs have
been offering financial advice for years, they
just haven’t gotten paid for it. But you have
to remember that the advisor business has
a high attrition rate and CPAs already have
a full-time job.”
Ochs said that Vest offers CPA advisors a
number of training programs via its Financial
Institute, as well as offering distance learning.
“I think what you’re seeing in the wirehouse
business is that many of those firms are trying
to go upmarket to the high-net-worth indi-
viduals,” he said. “That leaves a void for the
people with between $100,000 and $1 million
to invest, and not a lot of people are chasing
them, so often they don’t know where to go. I
think that’s where we fill an important role.”
As the economy slo wly inches back to ward
a recovery of sorts, several of the nation’s top
broker-dealers and financial services firms
are revving their recruiting engines and driving them toward the CPA market in hopes of
increasing their partnerships with accounting firms and practitioners.
Whether their respective programs en-
tail training CPAs as advisors, or provid-
ing financial planning expertise to clients
of accounting firms, broker-dealers and
wealth management concerns are vying for
increased penetration into the CPA and tax
professional arena.
‘PEOPLE PEOPLE’
Vest’s cross-town competitor, 1st Global,
which currently supports a network of between 1,110-1,200 CPA advisors, targets firms
with between four and 10 partners.
“We’re looking at firms that may be the No.
2 or 3 independent firm in their community,”
said Lynne Mabry, 1st Global’s executive vice
president. “We’re always in a recruitment
mode; we try to own the top-of-mind in the
CPA market.”
Mabry explained that the decision pro-
cess among CPAs to add financial planning
into wealth management clients.”
Michael Abramowicz, vice president of
advisor recruiting at Illinois-based Gen-
worth Financial, said that the concern has
set a recruiting goal of 300 planners in 2011.
“When the economy was down, the industry
got a little banged up, but there’s definitely a
renewed interest in broker-dealers. There’s
two ways a broker-dealer can grow — either
increase productivity with your existing part-
ners or add to the advisor count. We currently
have 2,000 advisors, 85 percent of whom are
performing tax and accounting work. Of that
number about 75 percent are CPAs.”
Abramowicz said that new advisors are
invited to the home office for an overview
and a practice assessment of what they want
and their interests — whether a fee-based
business or selling insurance products. Gen-
worth then compiles a six-month develop-
ment track for them.
