Advisor Talk with Frank LaRosa

Preparation is the key to most every successful endeavor and this certainly holds true when strategizing for your business and its future. It doesn't matter whether you are in financial services or another industry, understanding where your firm is now and where you want it to go provides the solid foundation upon which you will be able to achieve your long-term business goals. In this Episode of ‘The Financial Advisor's Advisor’ podcast, Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa challenges his listeners to 'act as if' and guides them through the strategic thinking and mindset practices which will position their business now for optimal growth later.

Online presence, in particular your website, is more important than many advisors give it credit for. In fact, it is the lens through which your peers and clients will view and form opinions about your business and your brand. In the case of firms who are actively recruiting or looking to acquire practices, websites can have an even greater impact, in particular to the bottom line as it is usually the first point of reference a potential firm or advisor partner will use to conduct their research. In this episode of the 'Financial Advisor's Advisor' Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa leads a discussion on the ways your website can impact your business and the do's and don'ts of creating a successful website in the financial services industry.

Compliance for advisors gets trickier and trickier every day. No advisor is a compliance expert and many - unwittingly so - will find themselves in sticky situations which ultimately result in termination. The top priority for the firms when in comes to compliance issues with an advisor is protecting themselves, even when the advisor is unaware that they committed any transgressions. In this episode of the 'Financial Advisor's Advisor', Part 2 of two-part series, Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa puts the advisor first and gives practical advice on compliance-related termination, breaking down the top ten situations advisors find themselves in that will most often result in termination so an advisor can protect themselves from making any pitfalls.

You may think it will never happen to you, but as more and more advisors are discovering, being terminated by your firm is becoming an unpleasant reality for many. In a time when advisors have become more outspoken about both their practices and their client needs, larger firms are retaliating with termination as a 'keep the status quo' strategy. Alternatively, increased FINRA scrutiny has resulted in firms becoming more vigilant in their business practices and ultimately led to an increase in advisor terminations. In this episode of the 'Financial Advisor's Advisor', which is Part 1 of a special two-part series, Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa outlines the 5 practical - and immediate strategies - an advisor needs to take if they are faced with the unfortunate situation of being terminated.

Regardless of the size of your advisory practice, defining your core values as an individual, professional, and a business can be a game changer. By understanding your core values, you essentially gift yourself  with a road map that gives structure to your practice, provides the guideposts for how you service your clients, and lends the framework to achieve personal long-term growth.  In this episode of the 'Financial Advisor's Advisor' Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa takes you through the practical exercises and insightful processes which will guide you in defining your core values, thereby redefining your business for optimal performance at every level.

RIA and Hybrid are financial services buzz words, but do you truly understand these business models and their benefits? In this episode of the 'Financial Advisor's Advisor' Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa breaks these terms down to fundamentals and evaluates the myths surrounding each. From the faulty logic that going RIA allows you to bypass regultory over-site and grow your business faster to the illusion that an RIA guarantees an advisor more money, Frank break these myths wide open and discusses the strategic truths that will enable an advisor to evaluate their decision to go RIA or Hybrid from a place of insight and strength.

Shrinkage can be an uncomfortable subject - particularly when it comes to the 'more is better' mentality that prevails in financial services. Many large firms are eager to push their advisors for more, particularly when it comes to more clients. While on the surface this may seem to be a good strategy, in the end the concept is fatally flawed. More clients means more time spent by the advisor, which results in less time to service the clients effectively. In order to grow sometimes it is necessary to shrink. In this episode of the "Financial Advisor's Advisor', Elite Consulting Partners CEO, Frank LaRosa reviews the benefits of doing just that by analyzing how refining your customer base and targeting the right clients from the outset can result in the most sustainable and positive growth model for firms and their advisors.

When you are in negotiations with a potential new firm partner, it is easy to get enamored with the big numbers a firm may present as part of your transition package. While on the surface the number may seem like a dream come true, it's important to peel back the curtain and find out the specifics of what your offer number is comprised of and what that ultimately means for your NET income. In this episode of the 'Financial Advisor's Advisor', Elite Consulting Partners CEO Frank LaRosa does just that by diving deep into what comprises the financial components of transition offers and the potential income implications for advisors considering a move,

As the old adages go 'the devil is in the details' and 'you only get one chance to make a first impression'. Picture your own home and the mailbox outside. It's a small detail of the landscape and yet it's care and condition speak volumes about the care and condition of your home. Now flip that script to the office of your financial services firm. If you are a firm actively recruiting advisors, what do the details of your office space say about you, your company, and its values? Will your office environment help you make the first impression that attracts the best and brightest talent available? In this episode of the Financial Advisor's Advisor, Elite Consulting Partners Founder & CEO Frank LaRosa discusses the exact details and strategies a firm should focus on in order to create the right impression that ensures success at all levels of a firm's operations.

It's a seller's market in financial services and advisors interested in making a move are being offered unprecedented financial deals by independent and wirehouses firms alike . It's hard to resist the siren call of a big payday but what are the deciding factors in making a transition - other than financial - which ensure an advisor is making a move for the right reason? In this episode of 'The Financial Advisor's Advisor' Elite Consulting Partners Founder & CEO Frank LaRosa discusses just that. Learn from Frank's expertise about how evaluating culture, technology, operational support, and other business synergies in the due diligence process of your transition - and not focusing on just the money - can be in an investment in the future of your business that builds a long-term legacy.