When a person becomes an advisor, they have to make two big decisions. The first thing they have to decide is who to work for? Do they want to join one of the big companies that you all heard of? Companies that advertise on TV, on billboards, that have signs in the bank that say “Talk to us about retirement”. These companies have multimillion dollar advertising budgets, and they have very impressive offices.
But if you work for that company you work for that company. You are required to use that company’s platforms, that company’s products, hit that company’s quotas. Your relationship is with the company first, you work for them, and based upon the solutions they have to offer, you have to go out and find clients to buy it. People that work for these companies are called a captive agents. They’re captive to their company.
Independent advisors are captive to nobody. We don’t have to worry about company products, company services or company quotas. We are the company. We don’t have a multimillion dollar advertising budget, we have a multi-thousand dollar advertising budget which is why we give these workshops. Our office isn’t nearly as impressive as theirs, but we still think it is nice.
We chose a different route. We decided to form an independent financial advisory company. We own our own office. We pay for our own advertising and we pay for my own support staff. Our relationship is with the client first. We work for the client and based on their individual needs and their goals, their objectives, we then go out and independently contract with any company out there to find the financial vehicles that best suits our client’s needs.
When you come in to see us we will talk about your situation, your concerns. I work for you, not a company. We are your advocate and we are free to go to any company we please to find the services or the products that offer the best solutions to your situation.
Doesn’t that make more sense?