Hack Your Way Up the Financial Ladder

Trilogy Financial, with over $2 billion in client assets one of the largest financial planning firms affiliated with National Planning Corp., said on Thursday afternoon it was joining LPL Financial.

LPL in mid-August said it acquired the assets of National Planning Holdings Inc., an independent broker-dealer network with 3,200 advisers and $120 billion of client assets. The firms in the NPH network are: National Planning, Invest Financial Corp., Investment Centers of America Inc. and SII Investments Inc. Combined in 2016, they generated $909 million in revenues, according to InvestmentNews data.

Click here to read the full story.

Cerulli Associates, a leading financial services market research firm, projects that more than one-third (35 percent) of financial advisors will retire in the next 10 years. In its wake, the next generation of advisors will inherit roughly $6 trillion of advisor-managed assets. This begets a crucial question: where will the industry find this next generation of advisors? As it stands, only a quarter of today’s advisor population is under the age of 40, according to the CFP Board, and of this, a mere 10 percent are under 35, Cerulli reports.

Why is the industry experiencing this new talent shortage? Of the myriad obstacles, poor industry perception and a lack of necessary structure to engage and mentor promising young leaders are two worth noting. However, they can be overcome with a commitment to understanding millennial preferences in the workplace and investing in the necessary resources to inspire today’s brightest talent to choose financial advising. It’s an investmentthat will deliver significant returns for both advisory firms and their clients.

Click here to read the full story.