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HIGHTOWER’S NEW VENTURES > 48
The Joys of Not
Being in Charge
Some advisors find being an
employee offers fewer hassles
and more time with clients.
By Donald Jay Korn
Lori Embrey enjoyed being the boss — but she hated being a business owner. “I ran my own financial planning and
investment management practice for
just over four years,” says Embrey, now
an associate vice president with Hamil-
ton Capital Management in Columbus,
Ohio. “Running an independent firm is
tough. You can’t just hang out a shingle
and start serving clients.”
Keith Somers also had his own plan-
ning firm — and many of the same con-
cerns. “I got tired of the headaches of
running a business,” says Somers, who
recently became an advisor with Ameri-
prise Financial in Stratford, Conn. “The
biggest headache was the overhead,
such as renting office space. Then there
were the benefits for the staff, such as
providing health insurance and match-
ing the 401(k) plan.”
Neither Embrey nor Somers has to
contend with such issues now that they
are both employees. “Much of the stress I
felt as a business owner has disappeared
by now,” Embrey says. “I enjoy spending
my days focused on helping as many cli-
Financial-Planning.com
ents as possible to make the best financial decisions for their families.”
UNUSUAL MOVES
The switch to employee from
employer is the exception, not the
rule, says Bing Waldert, a director at
research firm Cerulli Associates. For
2011, for example, only 2.5% of advisors went from independent broker-dealer firms to wirehouses; just 1.7%
went to regional broker-dealer firms.
Still, some planners are finding that
being on someone else’s payroll has its
perks. “Many thought that breakaway
brokers were moving on a one-way
street,” says Waldert, referring to advisors who leave large firms for more
independence. Referring to traffic in the
other direction, Waldert says “
bounce-back” brokers may be returning to firms
as employees.
Even planners who have proven
they can run a business may simply be
getting tired of it. “None of the advisors
who have made such a switch recently
came to us after just a couple of years on
their own,” says Pat O’Connell, a senior
vice president at Ameriprise. “Gener-
ally, they have had their own practice
for 10, 15 years or longer.”
About 10% of the advisors hired
by Ameriprise for its employee chan-
nel in the past 12 months were former
employers themselves, according to
O’Connell. Although he declines to give
specific numbers, he says dozens of
advisors have made the employer-to-
employee switch to Ameriprise.
