Attracting and Retaining Financial Advisor Talent in a Competitive Environment

A wealth management program is only as strong as its financial advisors. That’s why financial services executives are losing sleep over a serious challenge in their industry: finding, attracting, and retaining talented advisors.

“Our industry already has an issue with not having enough talent to be able to serve the needs of clients, not just today but especially down the road,” says Yama Jamili, Senior Vice President and Western Regional Head of BMO Investment Services. As institutions like his look toward the future of managing advisor talent, Jamili says they’re focused on “making sure we can retain good quality people, identifying how to grow, develop and give them more opportunities and identify new talent to bring into the organization.”

Such efforts have taken on a greater urgency in recent years. Well over a third of today’s financial advisors are expected to retire by 2030,* and it’s unclear if enough replacements will enter the advice space to fill their shoes.

Steve Hever, Director and Program Manager at Texas- based Wellby Financial says that, collectively, the industry may not be doing enough to attract new talent coming out of schools and colleges. Failing to draw more talent into wealth management could hinder the industry’s prospects for growth.

Fortunately, Hever, Jamili and other forward-thinking financial services executives are preparing to steer their institutions through the talent shortage. They’re tackling the challenge head-on with the help of LPL Financial. LPL partners with institutions by providing the technology, tools and support they need to attract and retain great advisors in a competitive market. With support from LPL, institutions like Orange County’s Credit Union are successfully adding advisors and growing their wealth management businesses. Anne Marie Hamilton, Senior Vice President of Wealth Management at the California-based credit union, says LPL’s solutions have proven to be “a big differentiator.”

LPL has also made a difference for at Wellby Financial, according to Hever. “I consider LPL to be my partner,” he says. “It’s the platform that we utilize to be able to enhance those planning techniques…it’s a partner that delivers better products for clients.”

As advisors continue to face the challenge of doing more for their clients with fewer resources, leveraging technology solutions from LPL like ClientWorks provides the support you need to grow your business.

With ClientWorks, most of your daily activities as an advisor can be performed in one place, with one secure login, so you don’t have to navigate multiple systems. With the client data and account information you need at your fingertips, you can run your day from a single workstation, freeing you to spend less time on operations and more time on your clients.

Connect with your LPL Success Manager who understands your unique needs and will provide you with the right combination of experts, technology, and scalable solutions.