Hello from South Jersey

BoomBoom68 wrote: MONEYGUY - I can't PM you because it says you have exceeded you maximum number of messages - anyway, what was your daily routine if you don;t mind me asking?  What time did you get in the office?  Leave?  What was your niche?  What firm did you end up with after your 3 years at ML?  LPL ?

I'll clear it out in a second, and I will reply to this post in a PM.  I've already posted a decent amount about myself in other sections of the site, and don't want to bore anybody or take this topic off course.

Your best prospecting efforts at Merrill will be to cozy up with some very comfy senior producers in the office. Many of them lost A LOT of money in the market over the past few years from their concentrated ML stock positions and need to make up for some lost ground. Look for some guys with 20+years of experience that haven't brought in many new accounts over the past few years. Ideally they will be in the 400K-600K production bracket and need someone new with a bit of energy and a means to 'modernize' their practice. By this I mean they will need some help making their book scalable and most likely a need to annuitize their book.

With the right attitude and a couple of ideas about how to bring in some new accounts (referrals from their book) they'll love you, not to mention, so will your director. It's a win-win.

In my four years at Merrill, I saw this play out over and over. I was too stubborn and refused to go this route...my mistake. Instead I managed to grind it out for four years and got burned out, which prompted my leave. The advice I gave you is what I'd do if I went back to a wirehouse.

Another option is to try to get picked up by a High Net Worth team. Pick a salary...say 90K. Of that, have ML pay you 60K and have the team pick up the balance. It's a way to hedge the risk for the firm and the team. For the firm, you have a better chance of lasting through the POA program. The team doesn't have to pay you full fee from their book for two years. Win-win.

What you said is also quite true. Many senior guys will use new-to-the-business use trainees as bird-dogs. However, a well-played partnership is what many established (5-10 yr veterans) are referring to when they say the business involves a little 'luck'. Just be smart, and you won't get blindsided.

Merrill's program may have changed a bit since I was there, so I cannot speak to the specifics of the hurdles or pay. What I can say, is that my experience came in a region where the trainees had the highest success rates of any complex in the country. Within that, the young guys that really, truly excelled did so by good-old-fashioned cold calling. They built their own lists of well-qualified prospects and prospected relentlessly. Funny and true story...my ex-director was let-go for discriminatory hiring practices...he was Mormon (LDS) and recruited heavily from Brigham Young. Nearly 50 percent of our new hires were LDS BY graduates with no prior experience, however they all had great success. By that I mean they were 500K+ producers within 5 years, or less. The only thing I could conclude is that these guys were natural born and bred prospectors. They were taught early on to prospect and deal with rejection while selling on their 2 year LDS mission. If they can sell religion door-to-door, they could sell financial advice without any trouble. And they did just that.

There are no secrets or silver bullets to succeeding in this business, and there is always opportunity for another top producer to emerge. Do not let anyone get you down with negativity, because this business is full of negative individuals.

I may have been a little misleading when telling you to get picked up by a HNW team without first knowing your experience. I have four years experience and a CFP certification around the corner, so I may have a little more leverage when negotiating with wirehouses. In short, firms are not as rigid as they lead you to believe. They have quite a bit of room to create solutions with regard to hiring and pay.

Thanks for the response Harley and good luck to you!!