Wealth managers discuss their hiring needs

The drumbeat begins again as the market rolls into another all-important jobs report, this latest one set for release the morning of Friday October 4th. Economists polled by the WSJ estimate 144,000 new jobs were created in September, so everybody should mark that down as Wall Street’s new Mendoza line  

Of course, whatever figure the BLS reports on Friday will likely be revised at some point in the future making market-watchers wonder why each and every report gets hyped more than a heavyweight title fight.

Still, no matter how banal the report-and-revise routine has become, it does give us the opportunity to check in with a slew of wealth managers to gain some insight into their specific hiring needs.  

Todd Rebich, president of Rebich Investments of Stifel Independent Advisors, for example, says he has multiple hiring opportunities in all areas of his practice.

“We are currently searching for new financial advisors, experienced financial advisors, and administrative assistants,” said Rebich. “We traditionally and consistently have a much higher growth rate than our peers, and the performance of the markets over the past two years has helped our growth, leading to a need to add staff.”

Meanwhile, Wendy Simmons, managing director of human resources at Prospera Financial Services, says the entire wealth management industry has opportunities in a multitude of areas – from back-office support to client-facing financial advisor roles.

“The growth of our industry is paramount to our success, which is why Prospera has introduced ProsperaIgnite, designed to cultivate the next generation of well-rounded industry leaders through a two-year home office rotation program,” said Simmons. “Through this structured educational program with mentoring and hands-on experience, the employee can identify where their industry interests are best suited, creating a pipeline of talent.”

Elsewhere, Craig Robson, founding principal and managing director  at Regent Peak Wealth Advisors, notes that while this Friday’s September jobs report won’t specifically illuminate the wealth management industry, the financial advisory business continues to add professionals across various roles.

“Each firm’s respective growth and resource strategy will drive these new employment opportunities,” said Robson. “Within Regent Peak Wealth Advisors, we maintain a smart growth strategy which translates to hiring new talent before we are capacity constrained. Our next hires will be within the business development, advisory, or client services roles as these will allow us to continue being ‘laser-focused’ on growth initiatives.”

Abby Salameh, chief growth officer at RFG Advisory, says she is seeing opportunities for hiring in every business line from marketing and sales to operations and technology.

“There is no shortage of opportunity for smart, hard-working professionals,” said Salameh.

In addition, she says the firm is expanding its RFG Talent program, where it hires licensed CSAs and leases them out to advisors on a fractional basis.

“These positions are coveted by both the CSAs that are employed because they get benefits and salaries paid by RFG, and the advisors, who get fully trained, licensed support,” said Salameh.

Finally, with regard to AI and the potential threat of machine learning on Wall Street hiring, Ben Hodzic, managing director at financial recruiter Selby Jennings, says it has very much made the whole electronic trading process and investment research process much easier for wealth management offices as a whole and hedge funds in particular.

 “As a recruitment agency, we're out there actively sourcing talent that's in the AI space and machine learning space and really getting them to move over to finance,” said Hodzic, offering advice for potential job seekers.

All that said, Hodzic maintains that recruitment will always be a “contact sport” and a “networking” game.

“It's about meeting the right people, building relationships with folks so that when you have a hiring need, you don't have to scramble to go find that person and you already know who to go after,” said Hodzic. “We don't really think that I will ever change that aspect of what talent acquisition is.”