'Desperate' candidates going to great lengths to get hired by advisory firms; diploma with typos
Financial advisory firms may be looking to staff up a bit, but managers need to be careful not to hire candidate who could hurt their practices.
Advisers are getting floods of applications these days for practically every available job. Thus, candidates must be closely scrutinized, said Stephanie Bogan, president of Quantuvis Consulting LLC, who spoke yesterday at the Financial Planning Association's annual meeting in Denver.
“You need to realize that the good people have jobs and they're not going to risk it to go somewhere else,” she said.
Advisers must complete thorough background checks on all applicants. Such checks should include an investigation of a candidate's criminal history, education, credit history and legal history, said George Tamer, director of strategic relationships at TD Ameritrade Institutional.
Recently, Mr. Tamer spoke with an adviser who was ready to hire a candidate. But in doing a background search, he discovered the applicant had lied about his education. The tipoff: The candidate's forged diploma had typos in it.
“People are desperate to get jobs,” Mr. Tamer said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
Once advisers weed out liars and lightweights, they can still find top-notch talent, industry leaders said.
“If there's a time to get the best and brightest, it's now,” said Frank M. Maiorano, chief executive officer of The Trust Company of America.
In hiring candidates, Ms. Bogan urged advisers to develop job descriptions that specify what skill sets would be best for these positions. Advisers also must create goals for each position and then tie those goals to a defined incentive plan.
Too often, advisers don't devote give enough thought to hiring – or the compensation they plan on offering prospective employees, Ms. Bogan said.
In fact, Lynn Ballou, an adviser with Ballou Plum Financial Advisors (which manages $170 million in assets) said she used to approach hiring with an almost nonchalant attitude. “When I was incredibly busy, I'd just hire someone to have a body on the staff.”
Her compensation and reward model was also not well thought out. She gave bonuses to employees who had poor performance.
Now, she has a defined business plan and knows exactly what she's looking for when she looks to fill a job. Once a candidate's on board, Ms. Ballou has specific goals and expectations for all employees. If they meet their goals, they receive bonuses twice a year.
If they don't meet expectations, she will let them go.
“It's not fun to let someone go,” she said. “At the end of the day you have to protect your business.”
