Knowing if you’re ready to launch your own RIA is a big decision. For me, these four factors guided me to realize I was ready to break out on my own.
Before I dive into what motivated me in going independent RIA, let’s start from the beginning of my career story. A summer internship selling life insurance sparked my interest in the financial services industry, and after graduating from Central Michigan University, I landed a position with a larger firm that managed billions of assets. For the next few years, I continued working in the wealth management space learning everything I could about how a firm operates. From administrative work, compliance and operations, marketing programs, investment analysis, client relations, and everything in between, I absorbed as much of it as I could. Each firm that I worked for plays a key role on how to become an independent financial advisor and here’s where I am today Principal and Founder of Resilient Financial Planning.
This brings me to when I felt the time was right to make the transition to building my own practice in order to grow. These 4 questions helped me determine how to become an independent financial advisor:
1. Are you looking for more control?
My number one reason for going independent RIA was the need for more control over how I served my clients and what I could offer to them. I wanted more authority over everything from the tools I used to the investment strategies I deployed to the client experience I provided in-person and online.
If I were to build a practice within a wirehouse, like Merrill Lynch or Edward Jones, I would have had very little control from start to finish on what processes look like. Plus, I would be paying a small fortune every year. Instead, I wanted to put all of the puzzle pieces together in the most optimal way for the clients I wanted to work with.
2. Do you want more freedom?
Freedom was the second motivating factor for me when I made the decision to become a business owner. Freedom, which for me, is the ability to be in 100% control of my own destiny and to plan exactly what I want my day to look like, every single day.
However, freedom was a long-term goal. In the short-term, I knew that I would be working more hours and spending more time building my business.
Before I took the leap in becoming an independent financial advisor, I went through a very simple exercise. I created a standard T chart, one side labeled “pros” and the other side, “cons” for both potential paths. One path was staying with the company I was with and building my book of business through them and the other was making the move to starting my own business and growing my practice that way. I wanted to compare the options side-by-side in order to make a logical and calculated decision. After analyzing the results of the exercise, it was very clear what the right decision was for me.
