Working With Financial Advisors

For some young CPAs, the future may be about financial advise. This month's Registered Rep, the magazine for those who used to call themselves brokers but now prefer the term "wealth manager," has a long and interesting article on why financial advisors should include different kinds of financial professionals, including CPAs, on their team:

Broker coaches and recruiters say they expect more advisors and reps, particularly those with high-net-worth clients, will come to understand how much leverage they can derive from investing in a sales assistant with a professional background - even if the starting salary is twice what a typical clerical assistant can command.

"It's really the wave of the future," says Katherine Vessenes president of Vestment Advisors, a consulting and training firm for advisors based in Minneapolis. Vessenes, who has advised Sheehan on practice-management issues, is also co-author of Building Your Multi-Million-Dollar Practice (Kaplan Business, 2005). "The top advisors are going to bite the bullet and spend the money and their businesses will really take off," she says.

Don't let the term "sales assistant" put you off. Some of the folks in the article are doing high-level work and making good money doing it. If you're looking for a different way to use your accounting background, giving wealthy investors tax and other advice through the offices of an FA could be an option.

Seek Professional Help [Registered Rep]