Congratulations to the EmployShare team for five years of effectively and efficiently paying GDC-based compensation to Ameriprise associate financial advisors. Team members Chrissy Wolf, Phyllis Hildebrand, Brad Bechtel, Dan D’Alio, Jeff Bovalino and Christina Caputo have been involved in the program since the beginning. Karen Kind brought her unique expertise to the team in 2017 after [...]
FINRA licensed: check. SEC registered representatives: check. Broker-dealer employment agreements: check. Team practice agreement: check. Non-registered staff employment agreements: um……why? Ok. You’ve got everything in place in your practice, except an employment agreement with your unregistered staff. Why would that matter? Your staff is loyal. Your staff love your clients. Your clients love your staff. Well…here’s [...]
Nightmare on Elm Street...is your worst nightmare about to happen? What keeps you up at night? It's probably not wondering if you are doing the right thing for your clients. You’re successful because clients have always been central to your practice. And you expect your staff to keep clients central to their work as well. It's [...]
“Liquor and Fireworks. What could go wrong?” This is a sign outside a liquor store in Northern Wisconsin, advertising that they also sell fireworks. Separately, most times you will safely use each and enjoy a beautiful summer day. Together, however…well, you may not have the outcome you desired. What’s the connection between “liquor and fireworks” and [...]
Put safeguards in place to protect you and your practice from unforeseen conflicts, giving you controls to mitigate, prevent and avoid risk. Protect your book of business through these proper legal agreements. The “Big Six” Agreements: Master Operating Agreement. This document governs the entire practice from Franchisee to legal entity and how they are “bound” together. [...]
Your legal entity – make the best decision to protect your practice! We recently outlined the advantages of teaming with other practice owners, particularly due to the competitive disadvantage of continuing to go it alone. Once you’ve decided to make the move to formally and legally join with others, the first thing you’ll need to determine [...]
Don’t make the same mistake with your legal entity. A recent ruling by a Federal Tax Court could have serious implications for financial advisors – take steps now to avoid a similar finding against your practice. The scenario Ryan Fleischer was a financial advisor who had entered, as an individual advisor, into a representative agreement with [...]
To remain competitive in today’s environment, it is no surprise to most: the stand-alone financial advisory practitioner must often team up with others to establish better payouts, operational efficiencies to build capacity and, ultimately, increase profitability. There are, however, inherent risks to practices comprised of multiple owners, members and/or partners – regardless of the type of [...]
EmployShare DOL deck printable version
EmployShare Independent Contractor deck printable version