Leaving Financial Advising Industry but for what?

How far into your career are you?

most finance careers involve talking to people quite a lot whether it is to collect info or give it, it only increases as your career progresses, ER will not be too different, there will be some difference between the Buyside ER and Sell Side ER, in the end no one really cares too much about your model/report/method/effort you have made until you make a mistake, most of the time it will be about how to benefit your clients even if they are idiots, might as well accept it

if you want to make a switch away from lets say strictly a finance role you could try working as a free-lance consultant for small scale startups and dabble in setting up businesses but there will be a LOT of talking to people with different ideas for how to go about it, so no matter which role you go into, talking to people (including idiots) will be an essential part of it

the issue with setting up businesses is that all the policies, systems and processes, documentation, etc you might make, as well as the results out of those will be your responsibility (for the parts you have made/implemented) and there is not a clear cut guide out there for this type of work (books are of very little help), so the learning curve will involve:- 1. a LOT of reading (depending upon how detailed a solution you want to make/is required), 2. implementation (making documents/explaining those to people assuming they want to understand), 3. a lot of mistakes and re-doing your work which again leads to talking to people and in such situations the word 'idiot' flies both ways quite often, so get used to talking to idiots

i for one enjoy talking to people, explaining ideas, etc.. and using the "he idiot/she idiot" mindset just would not help, instead try looking at it from the other person's point of view, stop wishing people would appreciate your work or understand it, pat you on the back, etc - you are not really that important (most of us aren't - myself included), it is a reality, also people most of the time care only about results, it's okay it happens

someone else over here had a slightly similar issue to yours http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/am-exit-opps

I'm also in PWM and before I got settled in my current role I was looking at ways to get out, but I fell in love with it so I'll be here forever. That being said, I have some thoughts.

first, change your attitude, thinking that everyone that doesn't understand financial math is an "idiot" is toxic thinking. you have absolutely no fucking idea how these people made their money, they could be brilliant at something. remember, everyone has a story to tell, your shit does stink, so humble yourself lest you be unhappy with your career forever.

second, it's fine being a research oriented person, but do you know who makes money? people who can communicate, even if they're communicating research. improve your people skills and your career prospects will improve. the best analysts (buyside and sellside) aren't modeling hermits, they can explain an idea, answer questions from "idiots" in a non-condescending way, and defend a thesis. this is not saying you need to turn into a sales guy, become type A extrovert, I'm not saying that at all. what I am saying is every time I go to a conference hosted by a 40 act fund or hedge fund, the highest ranked analysts are inevitably smart, but they can also take complex concepts and explain them to anyone.

an example: we were being pitched a particular life sciences strategy. the panelistsincluded a guy with postgrad education from the likes of harvard/stanford/MIT, someone with experience actually making therapeutics who's now an analyst, and the lead PM on the strategy who had no formal pharma education. I guarantee the PM doesn't spend his time taking pharmacology classes on coursera, so it's the analysts' job to distill the information about a particular firm into a coherent thesis for the PM to take on a position. that's the kind of communication I'm talking about. if you have the belief that everyone is an idiot who doesn't understand finance, then your arrogance will show. you should be able to explain an investment thesis to anyone with a college level education, whether or not they understand finance.

ok, now for some advice. the bad news is people look down on PWM. there are simply too many lackadaisical investment professionals for our business to be taken seriously. if you're one of the few like an analyst partnered with a drew zager or a paul tashima and your business is mainly managing portfolios, then yeah maybe you could get some attention, but that's likely not the case. here's my question: what track record do you have of managing portfolios? do you have a model portfolio that you and you alone manage and can show to a firm? do you have research reports on stocks that you can show to a firm? if you're in the retail space, you probably haven't had time to do that, which is fine, just know that it's an uphill road.

here's what I'd do if I were you:

1. start the CFA if you haven't already

2. start networking if you haven't already

3. write research reports on a few different stocks (2-4 maybe), build a model, and if you have any friends in ER, send it to them, ask them what they think. tell them you're not looking for any doors to be opened, you just want to be prepped for when opportunity does come. the key here is you need to be able to write and model before you get any attention, because you're a non-traditional recruit.

if you can't get any interviews, I'd consider a MSF. that seems to be a good reset to your career but it's much more focused than a MBA which won't help you in your situation.

here's a couple of great threads about what you're trying to do. Flake isn't active anymore, but he's a great resource

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/equity-research-qa-with-flake http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/qa-with-flake-%E2%80%9Cdon%E2%80%99…

There are a few options you can consider:

1. Like the brofessor said, start studying for Level One of the CFA. See if you can make a move into an Investment Management company as an analyst (when I worked as an Internal Wholesaler, we had analysts on our team that would do competitive analyses of funds, give presentations regarding certain asset classes, and provide support for conference calls when talking about different funds). Given your background as an advisor, I think that would provide you with an advantage when applying for a job at a fund company (since they sell to advisors).

2. Have you thought about breaking into Wholesaling? External Wholesalers conduct presentations to advisors on certain funds and asset classes, and it certainly requires not only good communication, but also analysis. You need to know how your funds are performing vs. the benchmark, alpha, beta, sharpe ratio, historical performance of the asset class, etc. Not to mention External Wholesalers bring in a lot of money. Again, I think you'd have an advantage in applying to a position like this given that you're an advisor, you have client facing experience, and you know other advisors (that you can leverage as your network).

3. Why not leverage your Wealth Management abilities to expand into a different area? See if any RIAs are hiring equity/research analysts. Apply to a different advisory practice expressing your intention to conduct research and analysis as an analyst on the team?

4. See if you can break into an IBank as an Equity Salesperson. From my discussion with those that've worked at Investment Banks, it is possible in some shops to transition from Equity Sales to Equity Research. Because you're an advisor (and I would anticipate you have good communication skills and experience selling, this might be a good fit)

5. Working in Wealth Management Tech/M&A/Law--again, assuming you have a year or so as an advisor, perhaps you can leverage your experience to work for a wealth management M&A/Tech shop (think Dynasty, Fiera Capital, Hightower). Additionally, you might be able to serve as a consultant to a law firm that specializes in Wealth Management.

Just some thoughts--hope they help.