The financial advice industry makes for a wonderful career: it combines economics, psychology, investing, and some tech. The overall field is dynamic, and the day-to-day involves thoughtful periods of alone time mixed with client in-person and Zoom meetings. Critically, you work on important problems for people. Americans are in deep trouble with their retirement savings and investing programs, and being a part of the solution is rewarding. It can also pay very well.
There are two significant problems with entering the financial industry:
Historically, it has been a difficult business to enter. Many entry-level jobs in the industry involve selling products we believe are sub-optimal for clients, like annuities or whole life insurance. If you try to work for a national firm that expects you to solicit clients (in other words, contacting your friends and family) … good luck. Charging high prices for products that generally underperform index funds is not an easy pitch these days. The wash-out rate of new advisors is high.
You can achieve a good compensation package from other firms. But can you sleep at night? Do you feel ethical about what you sold the client? In this era of low-cost index funds, we don’t believe that anything other than a low, asset-based fee is ethical. You should not fool yourself that charging people high fees is the right thing to do. In most cases, it’s not, even if it delivers you a big salary. There are better ways to spend a life.
We have no problem with advisors making a lot of money. But you should do so by using scale and thin margins and providing high amounts of value to clients. We don’t believe you should be paid a lot to underperform index funds, which is what much of the industry is doing.
Three things you should know:
Many firms skimp on their marketing efforts. One Day In July’s marketing program generates so many leads that sometimes we have to actively pull things back!
If you work at a traditional investment firm, those high fees they charge can make it hard for you to close new business, especially with One Day In July ads raining down. Why would a customer want to pay 2x or 3x for products that historically have not done as well as index funds? Would you want that for yourself? Imagine trying to pitch that to people.
Many financial firms have a history of posting commissions and bonuses that look good in job listings and are difficult to reach and/or maintain. Be aware of this.
If you are sharp, interested in economics, value organization, and enjoy working hard, our program should be a good fit for you. By offering clients a differentiated and low-cost service, we add more new clients in a week than many firms add in a year. Clients *want* the product we are offering.
This, combined with our organizational structure and proprietary software, allows us to run higher volumes on thinner fees. And you can be proud of that! We are!
