Financial advisers are doing more on craigslist than just selling their SUVs and buying secondhand furniture. Many are using the online sales portal to recruit other advisers and to fill other positions within their businesses.
Recruiter Tamika Winston said the leads she attracts for adviser positions that she advertises on craigslist are “mostly about quantity rather than quality.” But in some cases, it works.
One Alexandria, Va.-based advisory firm that contracted with Ms. Winston has already hired an adviser through the craigslist ad the recruiter posted three weeks ago. To date, the firm has received about 50 leads from the online ad.
“We use craigslist as an alternative way to recruit,” Ms. Winston said.
She said experienced advisers respond to ads on the site, as well as those who are new to the industry. The uninitiated, she noted, are often attracted to training programs offered by larger firms.
Such programs are increasingly being touted on craigslist. Axa Advisors LLC, for example, is currently looking for people with a strong business background and a “personal history of success” to become one of its financial professionals, according to its post.
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Banks and insurance companies are also big posters on craigslist. Recent job listings on the site included one by Sorrento Pacific Financial LLC, which is looking for an adviser to work out of Westamerica Bank's Northern California branches.
Sorrento Pacific, which provides investment and insurance services to banks, has been using craigslist for more than three-and-a-half years and has seen the number of applications it receives from the source increase over the past year or two, according to Sorrento Pacific's senior recruiting specialist Lisa Savino.
In fact, she herself was hired after responding to the company's craigslist post.
The company estimates about 10% of its actual hires have come in response to jobs posted on craigslist and Ms. Savino said she expects that will increase as the service becomes even more popular.
One of its benefits is its low cost, she said. For most cities, it's $25 to post the ad, though some more populous areas are $75. Some smaller markets actually are free, she said.
Many advisory firms use the online venue for filling out staff vacancies, as well. For instance, adviser Jonathan Bulman of Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., is looking for a planner assistant/practice manager in Rockville, Md., to help him write case summaries, assist with prospecting and help with client proposals and operational activities, according to his ad.
Remarkably, craigslist is even seen by some as a way to locate a successor.
Hunter William Bailey, an independent adviser in Citrus Heights, Calif., is looking for an experienced fee-based adviser who is fully licensed and has worked directly with clients to one day take over his firm. His ad on craigslist states: “The founder of the firm plans to retire in 10 years and is in the process of planning the growth and subsequent transition of the firm.”
Mr. Bailey, who's been an adviser for 32 years, said he's successfully used craigslist in the past to find back office employees for the firm and is now seeking to meet potential associate advisers.
“On craigslist, a person may be going to the site to look for something else and just check out the jobs," he said. "So the people you end up with are those who have jobs and are not desperate like someone you may find through a traditional job-listing site.”
