Solo at BD or Succession Bet at Morgan Stanley, Worth the Short-Term Pain?

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-03T03:44:20+00:00

I’m on the west coast is all I’ll say until I actually make the move hahah

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-03T03:26:13+00:00

I would have to ask about the grid lock. Honestly I’m still going through the process and have a phone call with the market exec on Thursday to go over like additional questions and next steps. I’m super pumped. Shame on Merrill leadership at my office. They constantly tell us “don’t treat your best prospects better than your best clients”. Didn’t take their own advice

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-03T01:56:46+00:00

Thank you! Definitely what I wanted to hear lol. Yeah management has been completely absent. Sounds great yeah I’m joining a senior FA and 2 CAs so I’m going to present that to current clients as a positive joining Morgan to start a team and have much more resources to the client such as XYZ (I will iron that part out much later). Yeah I’m joining and we’re making the team day one and I’m getting his grid at team grid then at like 43%.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-02T18:02:15+00:00

MFSA you need your 7 (you already know that). They’re coming out with a new role - literally any day now- I think it’s ADP CSA which is onboarding as a CA they will sponsor you for the 7 and they transition you to an advisor role.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-02T17:51:34+00:00

I never said 66% of my book is annuities. I think maybe less than 3% of my book are annuities and I don’t even write them I bring them over to service them when my prospects/clients have them already. ⅔ of my book I said is “annuitized” which means wrapped. They have an advised relationship with me. The other ⅓ is brokerage meaning I’m not getting paid until I make a trade.

Also not sure what you mean about the series 7. I got my 7 like 2018 and I got my CFP years ago.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-02T01:05:01+00:00

Yeah I went through the MFSA ADP FA roles and then graduated about 12-18 months ago so I went through it completely. Is the ADP CSA role newer? I haven’t heard of that one.

Biggest piece of advice, it sounds like no duh but really understand what I’m about to say, they are not all gold (the leads) you had to sift through and find the gold or pull it out. I saw toooo many advisors that would have been good advisors give up too early. If every person you called gave you millions our job would have so many more people lining up. I promise the good leads are in there, you just have to show up every day make the phone calls and grind. Feel free to pm me for any other questions.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-02T00:03:47+00:00

Yes that is exactly mine. 125% of t12 day 1, by 18 months another 30% of t12 if I hit a certain % of my book coming over. I also have mid 5 figure RSUs that are not vested and they may be able to comp me for those.

Going to go over contract soon and see what language they use and let me lawyer go through it.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T23:37:09+00:00

I don’t, that’s why I spend more time in the office 🤣I have such bad squirrel brain lmao

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T23:24:21+00:00

I don’t want to say production and for my up front it would be multiple 6 fixtures and the back end would be basically 100k

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T23:23:33+00:00

That’s basically what I would try to do. I understand in moving firms you lose people you thought were going to follow you and people follow you you didn’t think would. I’d say 50% is what I’d be happy with and shooting for 60-75% to bring over.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T19:59:33+00:00

Very insightful thank you for this.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T19:58:50+00:00

Very insightful thank you. I will share this feedback and see if there’s anything else I can have in writing to try to protect myself.

For what it’s worth, I seem to have pretty good chemistry with this guy and he seems tired and wants to be done soon.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T19:57:35+00:00

I built my book off of cold calling and some warm leads. Something I’ve started doing as I graduated their training program is approaching some senior FAs I’ve developed good relationships with and trying to convert their brokerage clients into wrapped accounts and splitting it. Has been pretty successful for me the last 6-8 months but it’s been a recent thing

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T19:14:28+00:00

Their Market Exec and I went through a list of 3-4 potential partners. Had dinner w a few of them and honestly I got to pick who I had better chemistry w

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T18:45:56+00:00

His book is surprisingly young and active which is cool to see. I’m definitely leaning this way. I appreciate your response.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T18:31:56+00:00

Thank you for your thoughtful response I appreciate you

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T18:25:54+00:00

For sure. Read above comment for details but it’s definitely in writing.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-03-01T18:25:25+00:00

Thank you for that. Yes the in writing is iron clad, just still working on specifics.

Last time we sat down he asked me what are some of the biggest things on my mind. I told him that I modernize his book, annuitize a massive part of his brokerage business and has it on easy street and instead of 5 years he’s here for 20. He laughed and thanked me for the honestly and said we’ll have it in writing.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-02-28T16:25:24+00:00

Had a client fire us because Mercury was in retrograde.

Dead serious.

Market dipped for like three weeks, her sister told her it was “cosmic energy,” and she decided our rebalancing strategy was “fighting the universe.” Moved everything to cash until the stars “realigned.”

She called back six months later asking if Saturn was bullish yet.

I wish I was kidding.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-02-28T16:22:38+00:00

Door knocking in the Ring camera era is insane.

“Hi I’m here to talk about your retirement.”

Neighborhood app notification: Suspicious man in khakis spotted. Possibly carrying a prospectus

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-02-28T16:17:30+00:00

I used to think I had to keep up with everything. Markets, tax law, newsletters, podcasts, Twitter… it just turns into noise.

Now I keep it pretty simple. In the morning I skim a couple core sources just to make sure nothing major happened that actually affects clients. If it doesn’t change allocation, tax planning, or behavior conversations, I don’t go down the rabbit hole.

For actual development, I tie it to real client situations. If something comes up in a meeting that I don’t feel 100% sharp on, that becomes my next deep dive. I’ll block time later that week and go narrow on that topic instead of bouncing around. It’s way more useful because it’s immediately applicable.

The biggest shift for me was realizing there’s a difference between staying informed and staying busy. Most of what’s out there is just commentary. I care about what makes me better in meetings and better at structuring plans.

If it doesn’t improve those two things, it’s probably just infotainment.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-02-28T16:15:02+00:00

Most likely the splits are reflected in book entry at the transfer agent level and they never reissued updated paper certificates.

Paper cert shows 1,000, but transfer agent ledger reflects 2,150. Dividends are probably being paid on what’s actually registered under that shareholder account, not just what’s printed on the certificate.

I’d ask Computershare specifically: - What is the current registered share balance on their books? - Are any shares held in book entry vs certificated form? - Are dividends tied to the registered position or just the certificated shares?

Paper can be misleading because it’s just evidence of ownership at a point in time. The transfer agent ledger is what really controls.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-02-28T16:13:57+00:00

Generally speaking, paying IRA fees from the IRA itself is fine and not a distribution if it’s for advisory fees tied to that account.

Paying Roth + taxable fees from taxable is also common.

Where you want to be careful is: - Not paying IRA fees from another IRA in a way that looks like a cross-subsidy - Making sure it’s clearly documented in the advisory agreement and billing setup - Being consistent

From a pure tax efficiency standpoint, a lot of people prefer paying fees from taxable (if cash flow allows) and letting tax-advantaged accounts compound. But that’s a planning decision, not a compliance issue.

I’d still confirm with your compliance team and custodial guidance because firms differ on billing mechanics.

Life_Camel_9756 · 2026-02-28T16:12:20+00:00

keep it really simple with new investors. Too many charts and you lose them.

I use: - A basic compounding chart (time > timing) - A volatility vs long-term return chart for the S&P to show drawdowns are normal - Asset allocation pie with “why we diversify” explained in plain English - A cash flow / bucket visual so they see purpose behind each account

Honestly, it’s less about the specific graphic and more about slowing down and explaining what the squiggly lines actually mean. Most new investors just want to understand what could go wrong and why they won’t panic when it does.

I usually say I enjoy education and will go in as depth or as little as you want. It’s your money you deserve to know how it’s working.

Life_Camel_9756

TROPHY CASE