To be a great advisor, you cannot care about money

At first glance, that statement sounds strange, perhaps even contradictory. After all, financial advisors work in an industry built around money. Yet after more than three decades in this profession, I've come to believe it is absolutely true. 

Being a financial advisor carries an enormous responsibility. Clients entrust you with the savings they have spent a lifetime building. Your role extends far beyond overseeing investments. You are helping people plan for retirement, prepare for their families’ future needs, navigate life's uncertainties, and make decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. 

The first responsibility is straightforward: design a financial plan and investment portfolio that gives clients the highest probability of achieving their goals while taking only the level of risk that is appropriate for them. 

The next step is where the real challenge begins. 

Compensation is the first distraction 

There are countless ways to implement an investment strategy, and the number of choices seems to grow every year. Different products offer different compensation structures. Some firms offer stronger incentives to sell proprietary products. Others reward advisors for reaching certain sales targets or asset levels. 

When compensation becomes the primary motivation, judgment can become clouded. When the client's best interest is the only motivation, the right decisions become much clearer. Ironically, advisors who stop chasing money often build the most successful practices. Clients recognize authenticity. They know when recommendations are driven by genuine concern rather than compensation, and trust becomes the foundation of long-term relationships. 

Succession is the second distraction 

There is another point in an advisor's career where money can become an even greater distraction: succession. I have now been involved in several acquisitions and transitions of financial advisory practices, and this is where you can truly distinguish the great advisors from the merely successful ones. Great advisors worry first about who will continue serving their clients. Other advisors focus primarily on how much they will be paid for selling their practice. 

Today, many financial firms aggressively recruit advisors by offering attractive retirement or succession packages. While these offers can be financially appealing, the motivation behind them is often simple: they want control of the recurring revenue generated by your clients. There is nothing inherently wrong with building a profitable business, but advisors must be careful not to let an attractive payout overshadow their responsibility to the people who trusted them for decades. 

The question that decides which kind of advisor you are: 

"What succession plan will provide the best future for my clients?" 

The answer extends well beyond the clients themselves. It means building a firm that can continue serving not only today's clients, but also their children and grandchildren. It means creating opportunities for talented staff members to build meaningful careers, support their own families, and eventually become the next generation of trusted advisors. 

The greatest advisory firms are not built simply to maximize the founder's wealth. They are built to outlive the founder. They become institutions that clients can depend on for generations and places where employees can build meaningful careers. 

Ironically, the advisors who focus least on maximizing the value of their own exit often leave behind the most valuable businesses. They have built organizations founded on trust, continuity, and an unwavering commitment to putting people ahead of profits. 

Perhaps that is the real definition of a great advisor. Every important decision, whether choosing investments, recommending strategies, hiring staff, or planning a succession, is filtered through one simple question: "What is best for my clients?" 

If that question consistently comes before your own financial interests, then the money tends to take care of itself. That is why I have come to believe something that once sounded contradictory: to be a truly great advisor, you cannot care about money.  

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Michael Connon is a Senior Financial Advisor with CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd. Please contact him at (905) 771-5200 or visit tmfg.ca to discuss your circumstances prior to acting on the information above. CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd is a Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund and the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization.