With a renewed emphasis by companies, the government and the press on retirement planning, the question is, from where will the next generation of advisors come?
According to a recent Reuters report, 40% of all advisors are going to retire in the next decade, with 35% now 55 years old or older. The DOL’s proposed fiduciary rule will put further pressure on dabblers to step up their game, not just for DC plans but also for IRAs. So how do we attract and train young advisors?
Ten times as much is spent on trying to educate participants on how to manage their retirement plan as is spent on training plan advisors. Does that make sense? Should advisors be required to have minimum training to be able to work on a DC plan? Not likely. But there may be a “silver bullet.” While most “older” advisors think about retiring, most have either not created a viable succession plan or really don’t want to retire — just slow down a bit. Hiring and mentoring young advisors might be a win-win scenario.
Take Lowell Lyon, a NAPA Young Gun with Mayflower Advisors in Boston who started at a large nation insurance company that, according to Lyon, “Had a great training program on prospecting, but I quickly realized that I didn’t want to sell life insurance. I was lucky eventually to land a job with a great mentor, Steve Dimitriou, through a mutual friend and put my ego aside and became coachable.”
Older, experienced advisors also have to put their ego aside and view these younger advisors as potential partners, not employees — like in a law firm. The combination of mentoring, formal training — online and in-person — and peer-to-peer networking might be a working formula that will accelerate the trends of DC teams and supergroups.
