The latest No More Practice survey discovered 40% of advisers are considering moving dealer groups in the next 12 months. Here is some advice to those of you that are about to take the plunge.
1. Take a long hard look in the mirror. Be honest about the real reason why you want to move dealer groups. Is the dealer group really the problem or is it something deeper within the business. When advisers come to me looking for a new dealer group the starting point is generally always a superficial complaint about their existing licensee such as frustrations with SoAs or APLs which may be valid, however, without fail when I delve deeper there is always something bigger driving the desire to move dealer groups. Many advisers view a dealer group move as silver bullet to a problem in their business, be it a lack of a value proposition, struggling with client acquisition or a business owner trapped without a succession plan. Do a value based questioning process on yourself. Keep asking ‘why’ until you know the real answer. It will save you and everyone else a lot of time and effort.
2. Tell your key staff how you feel. Many an adviser wanting to move dealer groups only tells their staff once they’ve made the decision to go and are then shocked to find that their team are not on board. They wonder why the paraplanner is meditating in the corner at the prospect of writing a full SoA for every client upon review and why the CSO is so agitated and resentful whilst on the phone with IT support about the challenges of the client data transfer. Let me put it plainly, moving to a new dealer group is hard work and you need your team to make it happen as smoothly as possible. Get their opinion on how you are feeling before you go any further.
3. Tell your current dealer group how you feel. They might be able to fix the problem. How easy is that!
4. Make a list of “non-negotiables” and then build a short list of prospective dealer groups to meet with. If you do this properly you only need a shortlist of 3 to consider. Remember that in life we can’t have it all. The same applies with dealer groups. You can’t have a full service dealer that is independently owned and that competes on price. Something has to give. Decide what you can live without and go from there.
5. Set a deadline. It shouldn’t take more than 2 months once you are at shortlist stage to make a decision if you’ve followed these steps. If it is taking longer than this to choose a new dealer group then go back to step 1 and start again. Too many advisers become distracted by this decision and it impacts morale and the bottom line.
