CheckMate

This one might not strike you at first as directly relevant to a financial services career, but I would argue it’s a very good lesson to keep in mind not only in your pursuit of a career, but in life in general. Not to mention it’s just too good a story to pass up…

Hot off the press is a story about a woman in Florida who saw what she thought was an ad for her position, assumed she was about to be fired, and was so upset she went into the office on a Sunday and deleted $2.5 million worth of architectural drawings from the firm’s server.

She’s been caught and charged, and the good news is the firm was able to recover all the drawings.

But here’s the kicker: the listing was for a position in the owner’s wife’s business, not his, so the woman’s job was never in danger.

Although, as one wag observed, it probably is now.

You can read all the details in these two articles:

“Employee’s silent rampage wipes out $2.5m worth of data”
“Disgruntled Worker Accused of Deleting $2.5 Million of Files”

We all know that old line about assumptions, but if you’re like me, I’m willing to bet that you still find yourself doing it from time to time. Don’t!

It’s pretty much impossible to not notice all the big quarterly losses just reported at the major financial services firms.

BUT…

In the midst of all the gloom-and-doom, harsh commentary, and dire predictions, don’t fail to take note of something else very important that’s gotten buried in the stories: the wealth management divisions (i.e., where all the financial advisors are) at these firms have continued to do very well - the problems have been with the mortgage-related divisions.

Here’s a few examples from the top three firms:

• Citigroup/Smith Barney: Citigroup’s 4Q loss was $9.83 billion, BUT Smith Barney’s Q4 revenue was $2.8 billion, 27% more than the same quarter in the previous year.
  http://registeredrep.com/advisorland/career/citi_losses_mount/

• Morgan Stanley: 4Q loss of $9.7 billion, BUT Global Wealth Management’s pre-tax margin for the fourth quarter was 21%.
  http://www.morganstanley.com/about/ir/shareholder/4q2007.html

• Merrill Lynch: 4Q loss of $9.91 billion, BUT the Global Wealth Management group reported revenue of $3.6 billion, 12% more than the same quarter in the previous year.
  http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200801171612DOWJONESDJONLINE001103_FORTUNE5.htm

Hey, I’d be the last person to minimize the current financial problems or potential recession talk, BUT I am asking you to keep things in perspective. It’s just like I’ve said before - there is demand for financial advisors, and I don’t want what you hear in the news every day to make you think that there isn’t.

I just read a great story about a group of fifth grade kids who finished first in the Wisconsin Stock Market Simulation game. The article is titled “Neenah fifth-graders double their money” - here’s an excerpt that gives the key points:

“They invested $100,000 of hypothetical money and turned it into $200,626 during the 10-week contest sponsored by Economics Wisconsin.

The gain was tops among the 2,400 teams — many made up of high schoolers — and earned them an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City and a visit to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in March.”

Wow - these kids doubled their money, beat out 2,399 other teams, many of whom were a lot older, and won a great trip to New York as well.

I know I’m way past fifth grade and imagine most of you reading this are, too, so there may not be an immediate lesson we can apply here, but a great story, nonetheless.

If you’re an experienced financial advisor with a book of business, or you know someone who is, this one’s for you…

One of the things we’re very proud of is our Community Giving Initiative. You can read about it in more detail over on our main site, but if you’re an experienced financial advisor with a book and we place you, we will write a check for 20% of the fee we receive for your placement directly to a charity of your choice and also personally deliver it.

This is our way of doing something good while also doing our best to stand out from the crowd by giving you an extra incentive to work with us. Even though we really are very good at what we do, we also know that as an established advisor you can go direct to the same firms we work with, or to any of a number of executive recruiters, all of whom will be very happy to talk to you.

So, beyond what we already give you in terms of personal service, recruiting experience, negotiation experience, and established industry relationships, we also donate a significant amount (which should be at least $5000 based on the usual placement fees) to your favorite nonprofit organization. And the really cool part is this costs you nothing.

If you’re ready to make a move, why not take advantage of this unique offer and reach out to us?