His ad said:
Who I Am: Early stage registered investment advisor with service platform, clearing relationships, asset allocation expertise, is ready to expand. My firm is client-focused and completely independent. I’m a passive investment manager. I do not believe that market timing, individual stock selection or purchasing actively managed funds adds value for the client; when taxes and fees are considered.
Ideal Candidate: A Commission-based broker wanting a turnkey solution for transition into a fee-based compensation model. I also provide back office support for current fee-based advisors, allowing you to focus on meeting with clients and increase your assets under management. You must have portable assets of at least $5 to $10 million. Any new advisor relationship must be a good cultural fit. A Series 65/66 is necessary. Life and health insurance licenses, CFP, CFA, JD or CPA are a huge plus. You must have good networking skills, be tech savvy, ethical, and have passion for the wealth management process.
Compensation: You will be paid a percentage of the fee revenue generated by financial planning fees, the assets that you manage, and insurance revenue that you generate. Upon hitting an asset threshold, I’m open to giving up equity in the firm, if it’s the right fit, or finance a buy in with revenue.
Other Considerations: While financial planning and investment management is my focus, I have expertise in advanced life insurance case design and relationships with many life and annuity carriers.
Serious inquires only. If you would like to start a discussion please respond via e-mail.
Of course I had no idea who this person was - not even the name of his company - so I wasn't stupid enough to send my resume (with my phone number and address on it!) into the void, so I sent him this instead:
Who I am: Former
California (Bay Area) advisor looking to break into the Portland wealth
management market. My seven years of experience runs the gamut from basic
retirement and education plans to running complicated stock option scenarios
for Yahoo! executives. Like you, I believe in passive investment management and active asset
allocation. My expertise lies in helping clients make better decisions so they
don't have to worry about picking better stocks. My passion lies in getting to
know clients well enough that they trust those decisions to me. I have only
ever worked as a fee-based planner because I find it impossible to sell
anything I wouldn't buy myself.
Ideal opportunity: My advice would
be the only product for sale. My client relationships would run deep and last
long, but the ones with my co-advisors would run even deeper and last even
longer. I'm looking for a collaborative planning environment. If I wanted to
work alone without giving clients the benefit of a second opinion, I'd be doing
so already.
Compensation: Completely negotiable
given the right fit. I might not have the portable assets you're asking for,
but I'm HUNGRY and looking to hit the ground running.
Other considerations: I've been out
of the workforce and at home with my kids for five years. During the limited
free time I've scrounged up for myself, I've worked as a freelance personal
finance writer and authored several professional blogs. Some
examples of my writing (and financial philosophies) can be found here: http://family.go.com/blog/
While my stay-at-home-motherhood experience has been a wonderful one, it's also
been a learning one. My lesson has been that I belong in the conference room,
not in the kitchen, which is why any wise potential employer would see the
resulting gap on my resume as a perk, not a lapse.
Said resume is available and I'd be more than happy to send it to you, but
perhaps we could open the discussion with introductions first. My name is
Amanda Del Buono and my e-mail address is: amanda@delbuono.com.
A handful of e-mails later, I met Jason at Starbucks (even though
he doesn't drink coffee!). I've met some pretty sleazy financial
advisors, but Jason isn't one of them. It's INCREDIBLY rare to find
people in the financial planning industry who share my philosophy on
wealth management and Jason and I clicked immediately. I knew I wanted
to work with him literally eight minutes into our first meeting. Lucky
for me the feeling was mutual.
"So," I told him. "I have this... blog."
Jason shrugged like it was no big deal.
"And you should probably read it before you decide if you really want to work with me." I passed him my blog business card and he studied it.
"What does 'mandajuice' mean?"
I laughed and shrunk into my chair. "God, you don't have any kids yet, do you? You probably don't wanna know."
"..." His eyebrows went up.
"It's named after my breast milk."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Go home and read it and then tell me if you still want to meet me on Monday."
"Okay."
He came back on Monday.
wooooooooo hooooooooooooo!!!!! You're in like Flynn!
Posted by: SAJ | December 15, 2009 at 01:45 PM
Your giving hope to a lot of moms right now. Congrats!!
Posted by: Kristine | December 15, 2009 at 01:46 PM
This is so, so cool. I'm so proud of you and envious of you and...yeah. Congratulations.
Posted by: Sarah Viola | December 15, 2009 at 02:24 PM
Woooo! Congratulations! :)
Posted by: Melissa | December 15, 2009 at 03:12 PM
AWESOME. I love when honesty truly IS the best policy! Congrats!!!
Posted by: Jen | December 15, 2009 at 07:03 PM
Congratulazione!
Posted by: vetmommy | December 15, 2009 at 07:41 PM
Wicked! Good for you.
Posted by: Rebecca | December 15, 2009 at 08:20 PM
Hooray! So does that mean you can blog about your job?
Posted by: Sheryl | December 15, 2009 at 08:35 PM
Awesome!
Posted by: Siera | December 15, 2009 at 10:43 PM
Herzlichen Glückwunsch (I realized since I completely share the contents here, I could at least vary the language :-))
Posted by: Christa | December 16, 2009 at 01:47 AM
Giving you a WOOT..WOOT in terms of my 4 year old I think it means AWESOME, WAY TO GO..So happy for you.
Posted by: Laura | December 16, 2009 at 03:46 AM
Congratulations!! That is so exciting!
Posted by: Mandi | December 16, 2009 at 06:45 AM
BTW, I've been enjoying your blog SO much since I stumbled upon it. I had to send this award out to you - www.lifeinbeta.com/2009/12/16/a-blog-award-happy-101/
Posted by: Mandi | December 16, 2009 at 08:31 AM
That is so awesome. I love this so much - and it looks like you guys might really love working together. YAY! When you have a job you like, being a working mother can be so awesome.
Posted by: A'Dell | December 16, 2009 at 07:57 PM
Amanda....you are amazing....WHO would not want you to work for them? You had him at Hello!
Posted by: Lori Harrison | December 16, 2009 at 08:06 PM