Greetings, PMD at ML
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Topic: Greetings, PMD at ML
Posted By: apac707
Subject: Greetings, PMD at ML
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 7:37pm
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Hello, I am glad I found this forum. I am currently a PMD at merrill and still studying for my exams. To give you a background of myself I previously worked in an investment company for a little over a year in operations and have a masters in finance. I have been managing money on the side (no compensation though) for a few years and have some households to bring over including my own family's day 1. I am looking to learn and get ideas on how to build my practice. Thanks
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Replies:
Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 8:05pm
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Welcome! Those accounts should buy you a little time, depending on their size. Good luck! ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Wet_Blanket
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 8:11pm
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Good luck. I got my start at an investment company too doing ops. ------------- The true 🤡 was the Biden voter all along. |
Posted By: MichaelBurton
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 8:24pm
| Welcome. What is a PMD? I am not familiar with ML lingo. |
Posted By: Crimson
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 8:30pm
| Welcome to the forum. We have a few ML guys... I think Joker knows about the PMD. |
Posted By: RickRoss
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 9:52pm
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Practice Management Development program, aka Poor Mans Dream program. You'll fail out. Hate me now, but later you'll realize I'm right. Just be ready to move that money back out in 1-2 years when you're sucking wind.
------------- "Act as if you are the MF bomb..... even if you are one of those snap pops you throw on the ground." -gotplanning, 2/9/12 |
Posted By: Chief
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 10:17pm
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Don't bring your family accounts til year 3/4 when you are no longer a rookie ------------- "You like winning don't you?" "Saves you from having to say the word please." Good point Chief. Iceco1d 10/30/12 |
Posted By: Jersey33
Date Posted: Oct/08/2014 at 11:08pm
+1 ------------- Without struggle there is no progress |
RickRoss wrote:Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/09/2014 at 2:03am
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thanks for your honesty. Day 1 ill have $1.5 million in wrap accounts, 3 households. I really like ML's training program and I am learning how to listen to the clients needs and wants and ask powerful questions to make myself relevent as a FA to put an answer to their problems. If i fail, I fail...but I will learn how to prospect, service clients, wealth management, and so forth. ML is paying for my series 7, 66, and insurance so along with the training, I will be quite valuable to other investment firms out their if I do "fail out". What I am hoping to do is see if I can be placed into a bank of america branch. From what I hear, it's getting a constant stream of warm referrals at the bank.
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Posted By: DaveW
Date Posted: Oct/09/2014 at 8:23pm
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You sound like you're drinking koolaid straight from the bull's d(&* 1.5MM will give you a two month head start. Two months isn' t much... whether you succeed or fail will ultimately have nothing to do with whether or not you manage your family's money. ------------- "80% of lottery winners go bankrupt because 100% of lottery players are retarded." |
Posted By: RipRock
Date Posted: Oct/09/2014 at 8:31pm
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apc707, I am guessing you are also giving the hometown discount to these folks (your parents) so the revenue will likely be less than $10k PCs. Let me show you a magic trick.
Check the branch newsletter and find out who is #2 or #3 on Net New Housholds - show him the $1.5, tell him he can sign it for FOG or whatever shit that they are doing now and ask for $3mm of fee based assets in return. Also ask for some mortgages, and dead weight clients to call and network with - another $1 to $2mm. $1.5mm to $5mm (except it will still only pay $10k pcs), |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/09/2014 at 11:56pm
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That's a no go, these three households are not a bargaining chip, they really believe in me. Although I know that task at hand is tough, I am not deterred and will prospect haard. Going to work my ass off, this is my job so Im gonna give it my all $1.5M in a wrap account charging 1.3% is $19,500 PCs/yr. I don't buy mutual funds, I allocate individual stocks/some etfs and bonds~ That's my differentiation. At the investment company I worked for before I was trained under the warren buffett style of investing, value investing. I do discounted cash flow analysis to determine the future stock price and do analysis on the fundamentals of the business, ect. ect. Master in finance~ I am building my prospect list and have about 250, will add more doctor offices. I will try to network with doctors as clients, and I sort of know many of them just plain don't know much about money. Time will tell, but even if I fail, I will have learned so much and if need be, move over to morgan stanley, start my own RIA, or join another RIA.
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Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 7:23am
------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 7:37am
You really don't know what you don't know. If you want to make it in this business. Take a step back out of what you think you know. Listen to old guys like SF (God help me, helado) and some of the other board members here who with ML. And Iamlegend. Dude doesn't work for ML, but knows how to build a business. |
Posted By: RipRock
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 9:16am
In Buffetology there is a metric called Mkt Cap to GDP ratio. Its high right now, really really high. Does that make this market attractive or unattractive for you? Just curious. If you need visuals, http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/Market-Cap-to-GDP.php |
Posted By: MichaelBurton
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 9:17am
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You are at a crossroads where you need to decide if you are an analyst (a book/computer person) or a Financial Advisor (people person / recruiter / counselor / relationship manager). You have a long way to go if you want to ply your trade as an analyst. But if it is who you are, then own it. Get the next job working in support of a fund manager (even if its making his coffee), hopefully somewhere that will sponsor you for your CFA. If you are a people person, then you have to let go of the granular expertise you would otherwise develop in a non-existent universe where you are so unique that people are lining up to bring you their money and willing to fill out the paperwork with your intern because, god forbid, they don't want to distract you from your genius. Letting go means finding someone who you trust to do the analyst's work. And trusting them enough to never question any decision they make until you have a self-sustaining book. That will allow you to spend, hopefully, less than 5% on analysis. Because you need every ounce of energy you can muster to gather assets. And BTW, your ML team already has these decisions made for you. There is absolutely no middle ground on this. If you hear this and are thinking, OK, I'll put in the time effort to get the assets so that EVENTUALLY I can do the analysis, then that means you are, in your heart, an analyst. Choose option #1, take your lumps and work your way up until the people-people are delegating their money-mangement to you, which, based on the differention you described above, no one is going to do right now. No offense. FWIW, you sound like an analyst to me, one who if he's not careful, is about to let his ambition for making money faster (like people-people can do much easier) take himself down a very painful road. That's all I've got. Good luck. |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 10:41am
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I see no harm in investing a portion of the assets in dividend paying bluechip stocks, Im not saying all the assets should, I also invest in ETFs and diversified funds. Not mutual funds in a wrap account never, that is double charging. I see from your perspective how you can see this as dangerous for a greenhorn or someone who is new to finance and investing, but I assure you that I have done the due dilligence and have personally owned these stocks for almost a decade. Can you tell me why it is a bad idea to own a small position in a high quality company such as johnson and johnson, chevron, boeing, or the other bluechip stocks that i recommend? Buy and hold forever... Diversification doesn't diversify against systematic risk, just look at 2008. So my philosophy is cash flow over cap gains with a buy and hold mentality. In this business, you know, it is all about learning from a more experienced person. This ideas are not actually something I made up, but training from a mentor who has been in the business for 20 years and a system that I learned. Investments, in my opinion, is all about mentor and student. But I would never buy A shares and then put it in a wrap account and charge a wrap fee on top, that to me is ripping off the client and being greedy. That is what happened to my family accounts with another financial advisor so I am bringing them on to ML. What are your thoughts? |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 10:46am
| Um, when you buy A-shares in a wrap account they are load waived. Genius. |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 11:36am
| So youve never seen it done where the client gets double charged? Ive seen it done several times, and the mutual funds purchased below the break point, scattered in $10,000 pieces to get the max comission. Plus churning of the account to get more commission. Ive seen it done at some third tier shops, but never ML, we get a warning and need to explain why we would do that. Some FA's are way too greedy, so I make it a point to explain that to a prospect when I see their statement~ |
Posted By: Jersey33
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 11:43am
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@apac707...Let this thread go lol. You know what you have to do to run your practice and just prepared enough to do it. You are wasting your time trying to impress some of these guys and they will continue to grill every post you make because you are a newbie. ML is a tough program just be prepared to pay the price to succeed. Good luck to you! ------------- Without struggle there is no progress |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 11:51am
That is why I chose this job, what you described sounds like so much fun~ You get to learn about people's lives, the ups and downs, the craziness and actually helping people. Sounds way more fufilling. Sitting behind a desk 70 hrs a week and crunching numbers sounds like hell to me. I need to walk around, make calls, talk to people, ect Ill tell you a lil story... I worked freelance for a former CEO of a fortune 500 company before this job, and while we were walking on the affluent part of town he told me some things that made instant sense to me. the majority of people in that neighborhood with $10million+ houses, driving the mercedes or BMW are in sales. One of the neighbors was the #1 real estate broker in the city, another one was in another sales like capacity. I consider business owner in sales too because they have clients and do business development to prospect and sell their product to more clients. Rarely are doctors or lawyers wealthy (they may look it, but watch when they stop working. Their assets don't make them richer, they gotta keep working long hours). High tax bracket, capped salary. Not too many CEOs living in those neighborhoods either, just not enough of them. The corporate world is like playing Game of Thrones where only one wins out of the hundred that try to reach the top. Also a company cannot justify giving a salary of $+1 million/yr to an employee unless they are a CEO. Last monday, I drove to the CEOs house and he decided to open an account to put in some california munis and other high quality corporates~ Although a small portion of his assets, I hope to earn the right to even ask if I could manage more of his money... |
Posted By: MichaelBurton
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 12:06pm
| Well, Apoc. I hope I am wrong about you being primarily a numbers-person because it looks like you are committed. Looking forward to following your progress. |
Posted By: RipRock
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 12:36pm
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I would read up on interest rate risk, and bond prices before I take a starter account for a large prospect to buy AAA's and Muni's~ And how to use periods ~ |
Posted By: DaveW
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 12:41pm
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The whole advantage of being at a big wirehouse like merrill is that you have access to all of the firm's analysts so that you don't have to do stuff like DCF analysis. Spend 5 minutes reading a professional research report rather than 5 hours making your own amateur one. And no matter how qualified you think you are, in your current role as a financial advisor you will never be more than an amateur analyst. ------------- "80% of lottery winners go bankrupt because 100% of lottery players are retarded." |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 12:42pm
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True, Here's a tip: Do not but bond funds. In this interest rate environment, you will get fuarked in my opinion. Buy either UIT's with a set maturity or individual bonds because even if the price goes down when interest rates go up, as long as you hold to maturity, you get back the entire principal and you don't care.
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Posted By: Chief
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 12:52pm
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I love newbies ------------- "You like winning don't you?" "Saves you from having to say the word please." Good point Chief. Iceco1d 10/30/12 |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 1:06pm
Please elaborate, I would like to know your thoughts on fixed income in a rising interest rate environment~
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Posted By: DaveW
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 1:14pm
no no, i think he's asking for you to impart more of your wisdom upon us ------------- "80% of lottery winners go bankrupt because 100% of lottery players are retarded." |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 1:16pm
| Sorry, drank too much coffee today~ |
Posted By: DaveW
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 1:30pm
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i'm sorry too, i'm posting here inbetween crappy coldcalls... bad habbit. ------------- "80% of lottery winners go bankrupt because 100% of lottery players are retarded." |
Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 6:10pm
1. Thank you for schooling me. (above post)  2. You did not address Helado's question. Do you understand that no broker dealer would ever allow A-Shares commission to be charged in a fee based account, unless they didnt care if FINRA shut them down after their next audit? You responded with something about churning and staying below breakpoints. Helado was asking how you can buy A-Shares in a fee based account and be double dipping. 3. If you are going to buy stocks based on a dividend strategy thats fine. But dont spend time on discounted cash flow analysis - there is no need to. Get a subscription to a newsletter service that offers models. Thats what i do, so i have more time to service clients planning needs. No, i won't say which service, you obviously know everything, so i'm sure you can use Google to find it. If you spend time on analysis, you will fail, we've already told you that, don't believe it, at your own peril. 4. You sound like a big swinging dick (without a book, though) so you should fit in well at Merrill. Best of luck to you. ------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: MichaelBurton
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 6:22pm
| Speaking of BSDs, Hacksaw has a gif that would suit you perfectly. |
Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 6:41pm
------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 9:34pm
If you think ML has a special place in their heart for you, your family, or your clients, you need to step back up off of that and put that shit down. To answer your A share question, no, I have never seen a commissioned A share in a wrap account, unless it is load waived. In the RIA world, it is common to see a custodian retain the 12b1 in lieu of ticket charges for mutual funds, partucularly third party actively managed funds. ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 9:40pm
| Also, apac you have no fucking clue what another FA is doing when you look at a statement. You don't know the history of the account. |
Posted By: MichaelBurton
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 10:07pm
| This is a troll. This has to be a troll. |
Posted By: ClarenceBeeks
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 10:36pm
Stop the bus, thank you for this valuable tip
 . |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/10/2014 at 11:52pm
No, you didn't see that. You're an incompetent little twat that thinks he saw something that he never really saw. You aren't going to try and gain traction in this business slandering other advisors for practices that don't happen, and for things that don't exist. There are no registered firms that allow their FAs to sell A-shares, avoid breakpoints, and then immediately wrap that money. You're delusional. Maybe some idiots here believe your story, but anyone with a brain doesn't.
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Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 12:17am
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The worst case I ever saw was my sister's 401k rollover put into a variable annuity in an IRA with a 12 year surrender. ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 12:20am
| Bullshit. I've never seen a VA with a 12 year surrender. Name the contract. |
Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 12:23am
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Allianz, can't name the contract, it had an enhanced death benefit for her dipshit husband, and that was all. No lies here, it was one of the first things I looked at. ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 12:31am
| Name the contract. I don't know of any Allianz contract ever that had a 12 year surrender. 9 years, yes. 12, no. |
Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 12:37am
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It was inherited by Allianz, and it was a shithook Scandanavian name. I would fax you the statement, but it's still in surrender and below your limit. I'm not lying. ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 12:56am
| I don't have a limit. And I still don't think a 12 year CDSC exists on a VA. Maybe it's something for a rider... |
Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 1:03am
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12 year, I shit you not. ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 1:05am
| Still waiting for the name of the contract... |
Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 1:09am
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Mother fucker. I guess I cant give that to you now. You can email me, the rep I left her with still rails about it too. ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 1:16am
Uh huh. 
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Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/11/2014 at 10:24am
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Probably an old EIA ------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 11:08am
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Lol, this thread has taken a turn for the worse. There's some characters haha And no I am not slandering FA's~
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Posted By: rooboy1010
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 11:45am
| Apac, how do you plan on getting in front of people? |
Posted By: Nova02
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 11:52am
apac, please don't take this personally but listen to the advice your'e being given here. I was a former Merrill guy as well who successfully graduated from POA during the 2008 market meltdown. It's a different program in many ways and I certainly admire your tenacity for prospecting. However, don't be jaded or overstate what you think you can do. Much of the success in this industry has to do with good ole fashioned hard work but a good amount more has to do with LUCK, pure and simple. That being said, family accounts to start are nice but it's dry powder. It gives you a head start but the rubber meets the road from there on out. Things get extremely hard, not because you aren't a great FA who cares about his clients but because the prospect you're talking to has zero interest in moving assets to meet your production timeline. That's one of the most difficult issues with these FA training programs - i.e., you need X in assets by the end of the month. Your pipeline looks good but the prospect won't or can't move his feet fast enough. The muckety-mucks in management won't give a crap, trust me. Learn this lesson and learn it well and you'll be much better off for it. Management is blowing smoke up your ass right now telling you how wonderful you are and how much they believe in you. Pretty soon you'll be just like the other hapless "victims" that have waltzed through their door in droves. In a way, they WANT you to fail. You'll do the dirty work for about a year prospecting new business and you'll fail out and they'll reclaim the accounts with the guys in the corner offices. Also, do NOT get bogged down into this "I have a masters in Finance and can pick stocks like Buffett" nonsense. You don't have the time to analyze and pick stocks all day. In fact, you can't spare an HOUR of time each day to do that. Learn to use managed money from Day 1 - mutual funds, ETFs, SMAs - that's it. The day you start crunching DCF models and trying to figure out the Macaulay Duration of a bond is the day you start failing out. You need to focus on prospecting 100% of the day and you need to do it better than anyone in the office. Get to work by 7 am. Don't leave until 7 or 8 pm. Spend half your Saturday there as well. Do this for two years and you'll be on your way. Also, know this - your success in this industry doesn't just hinge on your graduating PMD. Many graduates fail out of the industry after that point because when they go to pure commissions they can't support themselves or their families financially. Your timeline is 5 years. Within the wirehouse structure, you need to be hitting 200k or more in PCs by that point in time. Best of luck.
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Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 11:59am
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Ways I plan on getting clients: 1. ask friends and family aka "the low hanging fruit". So far $1.5M from 3 households, more to come 2. Alumni directory from undergrad and grad. I have googled notable CEO's, presidents, and board officers that went to my school and looked up their phone number and mailing address. I have yet to decide how ill connect with them, but perhaps a combo of mailing, email, and cold call 3. I am compiling a list of medical offices. Targeting single practioners and boutiques with 0-5 employees. Im gonna ask them about their employee plans and segway to help the doctor with his/her investments and retirement 4. Access the database for physicians that are specialized and self-employed (radiologists, ect.) and do a combo of mailings, cold walk ins, and such 5. Door knocking residential neighborhoods 6. Cold calling, but tee up the call by mailing first so they sorta know me before i call 7. Set up seminars, educational in nature at various locations including public libraries, hotels, hospitals, ect. if all else fails, ill go inside a bank of america branch and get warm referrals. ML has a new program where a PMD can go inside a Bank of America branch and be the designated FA there. Im actually meeting up with the complex director next week to learn more about this opportunity. The great thing is, if I qualify, I can go solo and not have to team up with anyone. Any insight would be helpful |
Posted By: Nova02
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 12:04pm
Apac, you're dead wrong here with your assumptions, but more troubling is you are arguing with veterans of an industry that you are a rookie in. That "know it all" mentality is going to kill you. In a wrap account, the mutual funds used are either load-waived A shares, or more commonly, Institutional shares where there is no upfront or back-end load and the internal cost structure is generally akin to a managed ETF. So, there isn't "double charging" taking place unless you've seemed to have found the rare FA who was incorrectly using the wrong share class of mutual funds in the wrap structure. I assure you that a firm like ML will block trades in those shares in such an account. In addition, there is really no such thing as "churning" in a wrap structure and in fact, one of the touted benefits of this type of account is that trades are made without commissions or transaction costs.
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Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 12:14pm
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I can fax you the statement at the little shop that charged a $1500 wrap fee, put the funds in mutual fund a shares, and added a $1200 financial planning fee on top. BTW this was for a $120k account :( And every 14 months, switched out of one bond fund to another to get more a share commissions~ I admit, I was not aware that A share load fees are waived in a wrap. I assumed otherwise because when I looked up the funds there was a % fee upfront for that particular ticker.
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Posted By: Nova02
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 12:48pm
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Posted By: Nova02
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 12:53pm
That does seem crazy and certainly expensive, but it's not common. Again, most reputable B/D's- wirehouse, regional, Indy, etc. all have compliance restrictions in place preventing these practices. Also, how do you see a $1200 planning fee on a statement? Usually those fees are invoiced to the client directly. Also, are you actually seeing the commission on the A share? Simply holding one in the wrap account might be another story. They could also be positions that were imported from a previous firm where the account was a taxable (non-wrap) account and the FA/client needs to manage a potential tax hit from selling those shares.
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Posted By: Hacksaw
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 1:19pm
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I'll throw my hat in here: The A shares being used in the wrap account (unless they were transferred in from Ed Jones) never had a load. My guess is that the institutional class was not available to the advisor. I've seen compliance allow some weird stuff (VA with no riders in an IRA), but charging a fee after being charge a commission would not be allowed. Money management - The people you are talking about are paying $1500 annually on $120k, which is 1.25%. You said you would be charging 1.3% on $1.5mm of FAMILY money. So you will be charging more than the advisor you are railing against. With no experience or credentials you will be charging more of your friends and family than this advisor was charging a complete stranger. Think about that for a second. The clients were charged $1200 planning fee. What did the client get for this fee? What is the advisors experience? Credentials? I am 100% positive the client willingly agreed to paying a separate fee for the planning, and received something in return. As others have pointed out your job in year 1-5 is to find and bring in clients. If you want to "do discounted cash flow analysis to determine the future stock price and do analysis on the fundamentals of the business, ect. ect." do it from 5am-6am and 8pm-10pm, or get a job as an Jr advisor/analyst for someone that already has a book of business. |
Posted By: RipRock
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 1:19pm
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~
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Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 1:40pm
Thanks for your 2 cents. Criticizm actually feeds me My background: master in finance, fixed income trader, trained under a mentor who taught me value investing, have been managing money since 2010. I do not much experience as a salesman or the wirehouse culture,. My mentor started his own RIA and was more about financial planning, tax planning, estates, trusts, investments, ect. So I can see if people on this board started their career from a wirehouse, they have a different mentality. I was trained from a small RIA, and learned their system of value investing. I'll spend maybe one hour of concentrated study every sunday on the investments...but really they are dividend bluechip companies. They are not some biotech or technology growth stocks that you gotta manage everyday.... Ultimately, I will follow what my teachers have done and start my own RIA. Never going to dilute my training, everyone does it differently. Some people are more investment oriented, others wholistic wealth, others more salesmen. I choose investments... But I understand your concern, you see things through a diff lens
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Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 2:57pm
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This career will not end well. ------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: Nova02
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 3:26pm
Apac, you have to stop taking this as "criticism." It's not. It's rational advice from a bunch of people who have been up to bat numerous times and learned not to swing at bad pitches. Trust us, we've all been in your shoes. I used to work on Wall Street before I was an advisor. I went into my position at Merrill Lynch thinking, "hey, I worked at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, no sweat! I can do this with my eyes closed." You have to remember that your background and credentials on picking stocks is irrelevant here. I've seen guys in our industry who have nothing more than a high school education absolutely knock the f-ing cover off the ball and they're making millions as an advisor. I've also seen more than my share of guys/gals who came in from some pedigreed Wall Street firm with a Ivy League MBA thinking their shit doesn't stink and fail out in six months. This job is about getting in front of people and convincing them to trust you with their money - plain and simple. Most people you're going to want as clients don't have the foggiest idea what DCF is, nor do they care. Frankly, if you pitch yourself using that language, it's going to backfire. Most knowledgeable FA's and coaches in our industry highly caution against using financial jargon and trying to "sound smart." It causes clients' eyes to glaze over and you'll lose them. Again, I WISH I had this type of advice before I started my career as an advisor. The fact that I'm here now, despite having a degree in finance and a Wall Street resume, is a goddamn miracle frankly. I got lucky. We ALL got lucky to be honest. There are too many well-intentioned people who think this is the career for them and get a wake up call really fast. It's a crazy occupation. There are people who have failed out of this business that I'd give my money to in a heartbeat and people killing it who I wouldn't trust to mow my lawn. Being smart isn't the key variable here. It's about bringing in clients.
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Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 3:35pm
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thanks for your 2 cents.... You saved me a lot of time and frustration~ if I just focused on stock picking...I would probably be doomed. But im still sticking to individual stocks, etfs, and other managed money in combination. Thats what I see is best The key to success is getting clients, I know. Sounds like a challenge that would be worth it. Ultimately I will start an RIA and have my own business, and I know this forsure...This will be a journey. Nothing boring about it. Not like sitting behind a desk for 70 hrs a week, crunch numbers, and be a corporate drone. shudder I strive to be good at what I do, and I choose this. It sounds fukin hard, but I am extremely resilient and stubborn. Let's do this
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Posted By: RipRock
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 3:36pm
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When your Mentor left to start an RIA, and you had family money to bring in why didn't you link up with him? Did you work for him? How many "hours" did he mentor you? Doing what? I think you are hard charging into something you may not understand. I wish you well. I am an arrogant self righteous douche myself so your type can make it.
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Posted By: Nova02
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 3:42pm
In fact, you should spend as little time behind your desk as humanly possible. Best of luck!
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Posted By: B24
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 4:09pm
Wait, I thought you said the key to success was that you invest like Buffett? (and in the background, Maroon 5 is jamming...."I've got the moves like Buffett, I've got the moves like Buffett"...APAC707 slithers across the floor...) |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 4:28pm
| you tell me what the key to success is |
Posted By: RickRoss
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 4:51pm
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The key to success is to get off this fucking board, go out, and make some money!
------------- "Act as if you are the MF bomb..... even if you are one of those snap pops you throw on the ground." -gotplanning, 2/9/12 |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 5:00pm
| lol, still studying for my series 66. So not quite yet fully licensed |
Posted By: luvindy
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 8:39pm
Buy some real estate, too. ------------- 8/31/12,Sportsfreak: "If Barak wins this election, or appears to be clearly winning, we are all fucked. Market will tank big time." Dow 13,090 S&P 1406 5/23/13 UC:Dow 20k before 20% crrectn Dow 15, |
Posted By: ClarenceBeeks
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 9:06pm
| Everybody needs to lay off this rookie, he's got a masters in finance and a blue chip stock strategy mixed with some etf's and bonds. I wonder how this strategy compares to jagger's top secret mutual fund approach. |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 10:23pm
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You're too stupid to realize the sales charge was waived on the A-shares in the wrap account. That is funny. You and Suze Orman should have lunch. She can tell you how high the M&E charge is on a FIA.
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Posted By: Hacksaw
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 10:39pm
Above was your introduction. It does not seem that you are really looking to learn or get ideas. Every response you give is trying to show that you already have the answers. Your 4 years of "managing family money" and one year working at a RIA in "operations" with a mentor who liked value investing. SF and others pointed out the uselessness of doing your own discounted cash flow analysis when you can get the information provided to you by a CFA. You ignored them. When you were proven incorrect about you assumptions on fees being charged (because of a lack of knowledge), you continued to try and say we (with vastly more experience and knowledge than you) were in fact wrong. Why? Because you can obviously not be wrong. Others have tried to help you realize that what you are saying is a differentiator is not really (using individual stocks, ETFs, and bonds), or point out issues (you will be charging more, especially if you are doing individual/target maturity bonds in a fee-based account). You don't even bother responding to those. At Merrill you are on the clock. $1.5mm will buy you some time, but very little of it. Your hunting of CEOs who went to your University, as well as trying to get into seeing a Dr is okay for long-term if you feel you can show them something of value that their current advisor is not. Oh and by the way - their current advisor has doubled their account value over the past couple years with those A-share funds in a wrap account. But what will you do to hit those monthly numbers as you try and meet with those Drs, C-suite executives, and plan your seminars? We on this board (for the most part), are here to help share ideas and our experiences that will benefit others within our industry, as well as glean the help of others. Take it for what you want, but it seems that you already know all the answers. I only hope if you fail your clients are any worse off than they were before you got into the business. |
Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 10:53pm
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I would like to seriously tip my hat to the membership of Advisorheads. You guys have so much more patience than i do. Must be my age, i just can't handle naive people any more for more than 5 minutes. ------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 10:56pm
| Speak for yourself. I'm not here to help anyone. I'm just here to poke fun at people and gloat. |
Posted By: luvindy
Date Posted: Oct/15/2014 at 11:47pm
It's not your age, it's that you're a Jew. ------------- 8/31/12,Sportsfreak: "If Barak wins this election, or appears to be clearly winning, we are all fucked. Market will tank big time." Dow 13,090 S&P 1406 5/23/13 UC:Dow 20k before 20% crrectn Dow 15, |
Posted By: B24
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 8:56am
"But I got moves like Buffett, moves like Buffett..."
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Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 10:02am
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Wow, this thread has taken a life of its own. Boy, you old guys think you sound so smart and clever with your jokes. You must feel so macho trying to pick on someone who is just starting out.... hahaha. This is just noise, can't learn anything from haters. Haters gonna hate. For the others, thanks your 2 cents, I will continue to look at this forum as a resource as I build my book. ...No problem with Jews, they taught me a lot about investments. Flame suit on
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Posted By: Hacksaw
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 10:31am
I feel like Bo Jackson talking to Jameis Winston. Last time I will try to help: No one is trying to "hate on you". No one is picking on you. We don't care that much about you. You have no experience in this business. Just about everyone on this board has more experience than you. A good many probably have a higher/better education than you. Most people on here are trying to help you. I would venture to say there are some (probably even many) of us who are more successful, in all aspects of measurement in this business, than your mentor. Having been there, and done that, we are trying to impart our knowledge and experience to help you be successful. You could benefit from listening to what people are trying to tell you. Many of us on here just have problems with those who are brand new to the business who try to show they have all the answers. We especially are entertained when the same person falls flat on their face. I cannot tell you how many people we have seen come in like yourself, and then find out they were fired for missing production numbers. There is NO mercy at a wirehouse. So take it or leave it, but I'm done.
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Posted By: B24
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 11:03am
Hey Spanky, you're the one that came on here claiming to be Buffet's disciple, basically just looking for us to affirm your strategy. You're not even fucking licensed. I've been on these boards for like 5 years. I have probably seen a thousand guys come and go, claiming they were going to light the world on fire, work 25 hour days, had a network of CEO's to call on, had a bullet-proof investing strategy, "loved the markets", bought their first stock at age 9, grew a lemonade stand into a Fortune 500 company, and has a masters in finance. None of it mattered when they missed their first hurdle and were back to selling cars. If |
Posted By: RipRock
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 11:22am
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His story is shady - was at an RIA - why not still? Why ML and into the frying pan? His mentor helped him - and then kicked him to the curve? Has immediate money to manage - will his mentor let him take it to ML without a fight? Was it ever under that firm's "management"? If he is that awesome and had immediate money, his mentor and RIA should have taken him with him if he liked him - doesn't add up.
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Posted By: Hacksaw
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 11:53am
Sometimes I wonder if certain people on the board get bored and create another screen name just to troll.
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Posted By: advisorman
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 2:36pm
listen to advice from this board, especially Helado. |
Posted By: ClarenceBeeks
Date Posted: Oct/16/2014 at 6:58pm
| Good luck on your Series 66, Wanker. |
Posted By: DaveW
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 4:02pm
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To be fair, people that are this stubbornly tenacious and unwilling to listen to others have a bad habbit of being extremely successful at Merrill... ------------- "80% of lottery winners go bankrupt because 100% of lottery players are retarded." |
Posted By: Hacksaw
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 4:40pm
Bullshit. If they are tenacious in doing nothing but prospecting, okay. If they are unwilling to listen to "new ways to gather assets". sure Otherwise they are just ignorant twats.
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Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 8:32pm
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tipping my hat to Dave~ the rest of you haters is just noise to me, hahaha Jaded FAs, out with the old in with the new Mod please lock this, no point in dragging this on
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Posted By: Nathan Explosion
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 9:03pm
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ring ring...Hello.. Good Morning Dr./ CEO Guy/ Alumni Money Guy....I am apac w Merrill Lynch BoA Merrill Edge. I would like to discuss my value investing strategy developed by the Oracle himself! Click.......... Get over yourself......It isnt about you it is about them. Shut the f up and ask good question. You may actually get somewhere. |
Posted By: Jersey33
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 9:30pm
BOOM!! ------------- Without struggle there is no progress |
Posted By: RIArules
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 9:39pm
Here, I got you a gift, for later. ------------- “We are all Antifa” - Hacksaw 9/12/2025 |
Posted By: Totally
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 9:58pm
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Not to pile on here but ~ I was you several years ago. I had a thick book of rich bastards that needed me. CEOs, college professors, physicians, everything. Several years later you know what the largest percentage of my book is? Fucking Amish people. The doctors and professors were a fucking huge waste of time and killed my first 2 years of production. All this to say get ready to get your ass kicked. This business isn't what you think it is. It is a ton of hard work for no return for several years. The people on this board are for the most part complete pricks but they know their shit and you can learn a ton from looking around here. As said above you don't even know what you don't know at this point. |
Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 10:20pm
You don't get to decide which threads to lock, just yet, kid. ------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: Nathan Explosion
Date Posted: Oct/17/2014 at 10:32pm
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Posted By: knuk
Date Posted: Oct/18/2014 at 8:55am
Totally, I have a shitload of Canadian Amish in my area (watch where you step after they "drive" past). What do you find appeals to them? I thought for some reason that interest income was not kosher with them, and that they mainly invest in more land whenever possible. ------------- administrator |
Posted By: luvindy
Date Posted: Oct/18/2014 at 11:16am
I feel honored to be among this group. ------------- 8/31/12,Sportsfreak: "If Barak wins this election, or appears to be clearly winning, we are all fucked. Market will tank big time." Dow 13,090 S&P 1406 5/23/13 UC:Dow 20k before 20% crrectn Dow 15, |
Posted By: Totally
Date Posted: Oct/18/2014 at 3:24pm
I have never really been told by them anything is off limits. They love life insurance and fixed annuities. I have a few in managed accounts. The biggest thing I run into is once one of them makes some decent money all of them want to invest in the exact same thing. They love gold and silver and every time gold goes up a few bucks I get them calling me asking to take out cash to buy gold. We have a discussion about it and I can usually talk them out of buying as much as they want but once an Amish man makes up his mind you aren't changing it. All Amish men have 50-100k laying around at home though at any given time. |
Posted By: Sportsfreak
Date Posted: Oct/18/2014 at 3:33pm
Well said. On both parts. ------------- If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, then technically, you only had one piece |
Posted By: Nova02
Date Posted: Oct/20/2014 at 11:59am
You haven't even passed your damn Series 66 yet and already, you're telling all of us experienced FA's that we're wrong. That you're going to somehow wow everyone with your hard work and investing strategy. People here, including myself, are trying to instill some good advice in you (which, if you remember from your first post, you ASKED for). Now, I'm starting to believe that you came here just to be a jackass, then talk shit about how great you're going to be when you got the expected replies from us. I've forgotten (as have most people here) more stuff about this business than you know. I'm in my early thirties, spent time working on Wall Street for two of the most prestigious I-banks in the world. I graduated from a top tier University with honors in Finance. I'm a CFP, along with several other designations and STILL, I will be the first to tell you that this business has an interesting way of serving up humble pie. You seem to want to avoid it all together. Okay, whatever. Just don't say we didn't warn you when you're sucking wind and can't figure out why your bulletproof "investment strategy" isn't bringing in the assets like you thought it would. I told you, I graduated from the Merrill training program successfully before taking my practice to an Indy B/D. I have seen more people walk through my office at ML than I can count. They all thought they were God's gift to the financial services industry. There is a reason why 85% of the people FAIL OUT. Oh, and by the way, the PMD program at ML is absolutely ridiculous. Those of us who were in POA used to shake our heads when they introduced the program a few years ago saying, "how in the HELL are people supposed to meet these goals??" There were veteran FAs in our complex who weren't doing the required production 5-7 years into their career that ML/BOA wants you to hit by year TWO of the PMD program. Good luck with that. Oh, and if you get lucky enough to graduate, have fun trying to make enough each month to cover your $2000 draw while you're 100% commissions on the typical FA grid and not the more favorable but deceiving rookie grid.
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: Oct/20/2014 at 12:20pm
| I didnt realize until now that Nova is one of my favorite posters... |
Posted By: apac707
Date Posted: Oct/20/2014 at 4:50pm
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Plan A: Go solo Plan B: team up with a million dollar producer in this main office Plan C: go BFA solo (be put into a bofa branch as an FA) Stepping stone to start my RIA once I have enough under management. Im not a dumbass, I don't take no for an answer, and quite persuasive when I want to be. I don't listen to most of the noise and most of my teachers and mentors are extremely successful. I am picky on who I listen to and most of you should too. Good advice is hard to come by. I am not a troll... And if you think that I have a shady history and why not ask for help, have you heard of earning the right to even ask? I am trying to prove myself to even earn the right to ask the right people. If you ever run into those circles then you will hear this saying. I am not about to get undeserved special treatment. You would probably like me if you met me in person....or...at least your wife would actions speak louder than words, and i acknowledge the older producers successes. This forum is a great resource like I said. I am learning tons by reading the older posts. some of the people are characters, that's cute... /end thread
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