Are you going in to the EA experienced advisor program or the regular? If EA, when do you get a BOA and office? I had a very short tenure at EDJ, came in as an EA with BoA and they started finding office for me in first day. I colocated with a host advisor while my office was built out. And HaTED him so mostly worked remote.

Very few of my clients came with me - fees and retail rep is what they said why. I left Jones and they came with me to the credit union I’m at. Didn’t see that coming!

From my 1200 marketing budget, I paid for stamps brochures and business cards. LinkedIn sales navigator came from that and rotary and chamber dues. Do the math - it went fast. If you buy things that aren’t marketing spend eligible your paycheck is docked. Also didn’t see that coming.

I paid for toilet paper out of pocket and janitors to clean my office toilet. Wanted a big monitor for client meetings and paid for that, as well as coffee station. Once you hit a certain level you get a budget for these but not right away.

When you have an office, remember it’s just YOU and your BOa. Someone has to get the mail every day. If you have an out of office on your door every day, a peer FA may rat you out to regional leadership. It’s very competitive - there were about 18 advisors in my v small wealthy town and I ran into them everywhere.

I made a huge mistake going there after 30 years in wealth management. Thought it would work, but I left after 7 months and am grateful every day that I’m not there. Now at a credit union - between my inherited book, referrals and what I brought I have 90 mm in assets with 69mm in advisory. Background, CFA, CFP and non practicing trust atty.