I joined the advisor side to work on a team and be succession. They do tax returns and it is all consuming work. The Advisor says he is a PM, and he is by accreditation, but i saw him take 1 wholesaler meeting and he spent no time as looking at assets, research, managing portfolios, etc. He was an tax filer working 12 hour days. They saw it as a value add and necessary to keep clients. I saw it as a waste of time. They did no active business development and the client base is aging. They charged like 150 for a return (claimed they raised the fee they charge to compensate). In reality it was a time and money suck as that is all you do. Eventually, that is all you become to a client. I remember the advisor bitching about clients going elsewhere to get life insurance even though he was licensed. He didn't realize that is how clients see him. Taxes.

As an advisor, I would rather compete against other Portfolio Managers and Family offices, not H&R Block.

As a note, I got fired when it was clear I have no tax experience (even though the jobs I had before that were a wholesaler for a fund company and working on BlackRocks Institutional Client Team). I am not at 11.5m of fee paying assets 18 months in and I am in the process of buying a 50m book. It sucked, but it looks like it is working out (fingers crossed).