Illustration by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images
Eileen Freiburger
I recently sent my 26-year-old son a birthday card, but my husband deemed it so inappropriate that he refused to sign it. Maybe it’s a reflection of a long-term financial planner’s mindset. I’ll let you decide. The front of the card showed an “older” man (let’s say at least mid-70s) in sweatpants, a jacket and a hat jogging along a sandy beach on a mid-morning run. The front card caption said, “I jog 5 miles every day to keep myself mentally and physically fit.” When you open it, the same person is on the beachfront looking befuddled and saying, “Holy $@#%! Where the heck am I?”
Isn’t this how we all work with our clients and navigate life? None of us knows the paths we or our clients will take. Looking back on the twists and turns of my own 40-plus-year industry career, no one could have predicted that I’d start out at age 19 with Charles Schwab & Co. in the era long before it was a publicly traded company or even had an advisory division. Now, almost four decades later, I am re-emerging in my early 60s from a self-imposed Covid retirement to land in a role that, at this stage of life, lets me speak to my own voice and purpose.
How I Got Here
I worked for Schwab in various roles and then in my mid-30s opened my own project-based/hourly RIA. I joined the Garrett Planning Network (GPN) in its early days because I was attracted to the vision Sheryl Garrett had nearly 25 years ago when she created GPN. That vision was surprisingly simple: to help make competent, objective financial advice accessible to all people.
The way this worked out in practice was through a growing network of hourly/project-based focused, independent, fee-only financial planners and advisors who operate without minimum account requirements, sales commissions, or long-term commitments. GPN requires its members to serve as fiduciaries.
What’s Next
Like many other people, I have come out of retirement with a renewed sense of purpose and inspiration. I plan to use my 20-plus years of my own RIA and merger experience to help Sheryl Garrett and the network continue her vision.
Importantly, this vision includes embracing our fiduciary duty as financial planners to act in each client’s best interests. We continue to advocate for this principle at the federal level through the Department of Labor. There are still too many advisors and brokers out there who steer their clients toward particular investments not because it’s in the client’s best interest, but because they will lead to a bigger payout for them.
Another aspect of that vision is attracting younger people to financial planning. The industry has been graying. In fact, the CFP Board’s website recently reported that almost 45% of all CFPs are over the age of 50. Who’s replacing us? Who is creating a succession plan for financial planners who don’t hold out the AUM shingle? How do we share this career path with others?
Over my career, I’ve helped others take over client relationships and step into much more senior roles. In a few instances, I talked retiring advisors through the possibilities of letting a seasoned, time-tested employee start to take over as the primary “point person,” so the advisor could begin to plan their own “fade out.” It’s not that difficult to incorporate conversations around buyouts, compensation, and benefits as they plan to turn their firm over to others.
These days, many consumers are fascinated with personal financial blogs, websites, and general reading. They enjoy the research, rebalancing their own portfolios and following advisor and industry updates. As they become more aware, how many will realize this can be a very viable second career path?
In fact, it’s often the encore-career person who finds us and this industry, seeking to join this profession to lead others through their financial decisions and personal life paths.
As advisors, we need to extend ourselves to show others the possible paths to this becoming someone’s future career. Let’s continue to find ways to bring more advisors into our industry. It’s time to do for others what others did for you to help you grow as an advisor. That’s what my friend and industry icon Sheryl Garrett did for me halfway through my almost 40-year career journey.
