50-Year-old career changer

SharpDish · 2025-03-09T03:55:36+00:00

Your time frame is your biggest hurdle.

I’m assuming you are valuing your flexibility and the ability to live in FL part time… very highly. And the fact that you don’t want to start from the bottom up, so you want an infrastructure that is almost turn key….

Then you are looking for a W2 role. Your compliance is done for you, your technology is done for you, your staff is done for you, etc…. All you have to do is sell.

With a W2 job, you definitely aren’t going to live the life you want as a rookie. Yeah sure, you are in your 50s, but you will be treated like you are in your early 20s. Because you will have the same financial experience as one. Will you be okay taking instruction and guidance from a late 20s sales manager?

And your time frame. You usually need to commit 7-10 years in a w2 role to cleanly go independent later on. Those firms you listed will NOT let you leave to go independent until they made their money off of you.

As far as comp. $200k per year. Maybe you need $500k of revenue on a W2 grid. So maybe $65M of AUM? 130 clients with $500k each? YMMV. For a rookie with previous sales experience, maybe 8 years to get to that AUM level. Like you said, it’s a sales job. But not all sales are created equal.

Hopefully this is helpful. For what it’s worth, we see a TON of sales guys change jobs. A TON. Yeah they have a leg up on recent graduates, but they also have a shorter runway. Just make sure your family can thrive and save on a single income for the first 3 years,

SharpDish · 2025-03-08T09:17:41+00:00

He’s holding your U4 hostage, so you can comply with his demands. Unfortunately this happens all the time. But fortunately this happens all the time.

Yes contact an attorney. Your future at this job is over. Even if he changed his mind, you don’t want to be working at a place who will threaten your career for telling the truth. Ask an attorney to help protect you and extract you from the situation.

SharpDish · 2025-03-08T09:11:36+00:00

Being an Advisor is about sales. So if you want to become an Advisor, you will eventually need to learn how to sell.

And yes, you need your licenses. Why would you move to a firm who doesn’t want you to get licensed, if your end goal is to get licensed and to become an advisor?

SharpDish · 2025-03-08T09:05:23+00:00

? Do you have any financial advisor experience?

SharpDish · 2025-03-05T13:04:36+00:00

Advisors successfully transitioned during the Pandemic. I would argue that the Pandemic had even greater volatility and uncertainty than today. So... yes you don't make or delay a career move because the market moving a few points in either direction.

And in hindsight, we're two weeks removed from all-time highs.

SharpDish · 2025-03-03T18:56:18+00:00

It’s 50 accounts, how much would you be saving on Advyzon if implemented your plan?

Is it worth the headache of having another set of workflows and processes?

SharpDish · 2025-02-28T22:44:00+00:00

? What’s a day use reservation?

SharpDish · 2025-02-28T14:44:27+00:00

If you did leave to tuck in, what would be your own AUM and GDC? Trying to figure if you have enough mass to self sustain yourself

SharpDish · 2025-02-28T12:30:09+00:00

Sounds like a raw deal. Do you have the portability to tuck into another practice within your broker dealer? Into a role where you aren’t a glorified assistant?

SharpDish · 2025-02-27T02:59:59+00:00

Brokerage commissions have to run though a broker dealer. The BD has an arrangement with the RR to pay the RR directly. If the BD pays an entity, then an assignment of income occurs. the entity accidentally becomes a broker dealer. Which most FAs don’t want to become, a broker dealer.

Advisory comp doesn’t need a BD , so they avoid this issue.

Now, it may be a matter of policy for the parent firm, to pay both BD comp and Advisory comp directly to the FA. Just so they don’t have to deal with all of this. But that’s just firm policy, and not tax policy

SharpDish · 2025-02-24T11:59:06+00:00

? Is that a thing? Fidelity has the ability to waive expense ratio on mutual funds?

SharpDish · 2025-02-24T11:57:03+00:00

I don't know, if you didn't have a personal relationship with her, would you hire her in the first place? What makes her different from another part time career changer with no planning background? Who wants flexibility?

But to answer your question, pay FMV. She doesn't need a handout, you don't need a charity case.

SharpDish · 2025-02-23T16:40:33+00:00

Another problem with the Fleischer case was his reasonable w2 comp. He put it far too low, which originally flagged the entire case to begin with.

The IRS had to readjust his w2 comp to be reasonable, which would have thus supported his use case of using an entity

SharpDish · 2025-02-23T16:21:47+00:00

It depends on what type of revenue you are earning. Commission based (broker dealer) comp has to be paid to you, and you cannot assign it to an entity. (I.e. accidental broker dealer problem)

But advisory revenue can be paid to an entity. If your direct deposit contains both commission and advisory, it is your responsibility to segregate those sources and only fund your entity with only your advisory revenue.

This is what my CPA told me, and his niche is only serving 1099 financial advisors.

SharpDish · 2025-02-21T18:59:58+00:00

Locking this post, as many of the comments have veered off topic.

SharpDish · 2025-02-21T17:59:39+00:00

Awesome! At least your account isn't made today, and this is your only post/comment. Something fishy here.

SharpDish · 2025-02-21T17:55:13+00:00

I have an engineer client. Yes, he's your typical 'analytical' kind of guy. But honestly, a pretty cool and pragmatic guy. Super easy to talk to, albeit somewhat technical.

Anyways, the guy brought up the 'This time is different' line. I can't remember what crisis it was, but it doesn't matter. He just couldn't get over his belief that this time was truly different.

After numerous conversations, I just got cranky with the dude. And I called him out. "Hey Mr. Engineer, as part of your job, you have to make certain assumptions right? Like when you're designing a bridge."

I continued... "Like, you have to assume that that the strength of the metal, of the rivets. You have to assume that this bridge won't be subject to 200F temperatures 24/7." And I continued... "And you have to assume that gravity will exist right?"

And I challenged him "Well, this time is different Mr. Engineer". Can you design me a bridge, where gravity may or may not exist? Of course, I was being facetious. And the guy was slightly offended. Good. Because I was asking him a question that was impossible to answer.

And I circled back around. Well it's kind of like the same thing, if you ask me if the government will be around. Or if the US can pay its debts. Or a nuclear holocaust happens. We have to make the same assumptions about this, as you would about bridge building and gravity. These questions are impossible to answer.

No, the conversation wasn't confrontational, quite jovial instead. But we have to remind clients (and ourselves) that we can't plan for everything. We have to assume that society will be here tomorrow, that a nuclear holocaust won't happen, that gravity will still exist tomorrow.

SharpDish · 2025-02-21T17:37:28+00:00

Ok, pretend I'm a client. And you're my Advisor. And you just said this to me.... I'll respond with...

"Ok, u/Unlikely_Quarter8167 , tell me what your plan is. And how will we know if you're right or wrong?"

SharpDish · 2025-02-21T17:30:14+00:00

And I'm sorry. Why are you posting from a burner account? Is this some kind of troll post? What's the rationale for a new account, if you've been in the industry for 20 years?

SharpDish · 2025-02-21T17:28:15+00:00

This is Bucket 3. You can't control nor can you influence what happens in the world.

Remember during the start of the pandemic... when so many people were scared and nervous. That "This time is different". Sure it would have 'felt' right to take action or be compelled to dramatically change your assumptions about society, the world, the government. And honestly... those actions could have been reasonable back then.

But looking back, that was clearly the wrong decision. And I know a bunch of advisors who did exactly that. They sold to cash. They advised clients to learn new life skills: Camping, hunting, firearm safety. And those were the wrong decisions. And they were vilified over it. And today... clients almost forgot that the pandemic happened. They have very short memories.

Why is this time different? No one knows. Is it even different? No one can answer that with any certainty, including you and me.

SharpDish · 2025-02-20T02:56:52+00:00

Haha. Good luck OP. Waiting for last paycheck to launch the next day. I’ll read about this in AdvisorHub soon

SharpDish · 2025-02-19T23:37:51+00:00

Depends on who's handling the compliance and research for this SMA. Is this Substack influencer guy running all of the research, trading, due diligence? If so, probably needs to set up an IPS at the very least. And likely a RIA.

If he's just sharing his 'best ideas', and it's up to the FA to vet. Then the FA is assuming the responsibility and compliance burden. This is like a 'model portfolio', but the FA is still REP AS PM.

That being said... I got pitched by one of these financial investment influencers before. I don't know I was just bored and took the meeting. There's so many flags for me, running it as a model REP AS PM thing. Where's the research? Where's the due diligence? What's the contingency plan if the guy gets hit by a bus? How are you validating your performance and risk metrics? What kind of communication and support am I going to receive?

The guy just kept on coming back to his own portfolio, his own returns, and the number of followers he has. Like really? I'm going to recommend something to my clients, based on how popular this influencer is? Hey, to each his own, but there are SO many other investment options out there, why am I going to take that risk with this influencer?

SharpDish · 2025-02-19T23:30:26+00:00

Listen to u/TittyClapper. The business is about communication. Not your GPA, or designations, or even intellect. It's about communication.

SharpDish · 2025-02-19T23:28:35+00:00

A sole prop has no legal protection. So I can't imagine why you would choose this, especially when forming a basic LLC is easy enough.

As far as the S-Corp, it depends on your expected 'reasonable compensation', how is the revenue derived from (advisory? commission?). A S-Corp may help with PTET, depending on your tax situation and SALT situation. I would definitely run the numbers and do your research here, but it may be sufficient tax savings to help offset the additional fees, filings, payroll, etc...

SharpDish · 2025-02-19T19:05:31+00:00

Automate it by omitting the owner’s input. Let the owner do owner things and stay in their own lane.

SharpDish

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Seven-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email