Am I being undersold moving from CIB to PWM?

First, I realize PWM doesn't fall under the AM umbrella, but thought it may be more relevant here than in the "Other Industries" forum. 

I'm looking for some advice/input from those who've worked in Private Wealth Management, based on either your experience or from what you might've seen with your colleagues. 

I've received an offer to join a small but fast-growing wealth advisory team at a large bank in Toronto.  I've been working at this bank for the last 9 years in a different capacity (first few as a mortgage broker, last 7 in corporate banking where I'm now a VP).  Though I'd never contemplated shifting from CIB to PWM, I've recently changed my tune as I find a lot of the facets of PWM appealing and think I could succeed (I'm assuming the advisor thought so as well as I've been getting a strong push to join the team).  Though I know it's not always relevant in the role, I have my CFA and good track record in sales at the bank - I just don't see much upward movement in CIB in the next few years.

My offer is for an associate, at $44k/year, and a less attractive benefits package.  There's some other components of variable comp, for all-in of ~$100k - which is about half of what I'm making now. Spoke to the bank about path of progression to be an advisor, chance of eventually building equity, etc, and answers were reasonably vague - but I get that they can't promise anything until I've performed.

Though I don’t have PWM experience, I'd argue my experience & credentials add value.  Our initial negotiations was me asking to be brought on as an advisor, but was told I'd need to come in with a book of clients for that title.  Another thought is applying to join a rookie advisor program at another firm, but there is very strong appeal for me to stay working for the same bank.  I feel like I'm being given a cookie-cutter offer with little room for negotiation (according to my attempts so far - even got a 'no' for covering my annual CFA fees), and as I'm feeling pretty anxious about taking such a big drop in base salary, I'd like to understand:  Does experience in a non-PWM field ever factor in to marketability/chances of success?  Is this a 'typical' offer? 

 
Most Helpful

Does the bank have a Private Banking arm or does that all fall under PWM? I would think your CB experience would be quite valuable to the PWM area if there's an interest in cross selling / leveraging bank relationships. Some banks operate in complete silos while others play well in the sandbox. Assuming the latter, you should be able to position yourself as a rainmaker and bring in large personal accounts from the corporate client base. That could be huge for the bank as the dollars are going somewhere.

The all in comp sounds very low for your experience level and potential value to the team. Not so concerned about salary if the variable comp can be truly results based with heavy weighting to your personal achievement (vs the whole group). If it were me, and if it was the right environment, I'd propose a  salary / bonus / draw against commission ( to level out the bumpy ride the first yr or so) keeping your comp about where it is. If they like you and have vision, they might go for something like that. If it's not working, they can always fire you. That's the reality of an sales position anyway.

A number of yrs back I was being recruited (that may be the difference) to hop firms. It wasn't an AUM gig but rather building a team and going after new money (nothing else mattered). Knowing it would take time, I negotiated a non-recoverable draw of 150% of what I was earning (was going form employee to independent, so I had to factor in overhead) for 12 months. I put a business plan together, showed them where the money would come from, etc. They agreed quickly (should have asked for 200%!) Fell short of target the first yr but more than made up for it going forward. Neither party ever looked back, and trust me, they made a ton on my production.

How confident are you? Can you show them a realistic path to validate the comp? Do you execute well? If they'll go for it, great. If not, there may be something in the culture that would make me ask if it was the right bank to make a career change.

 

That was helpful, thank you! Lots of good info in there. All of what you said nailed exactly what I was trying to accomplish, and somewhere in my negotiations I'd just felt like I lost negotiating power.  The bank does have a Private Banking arm, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't eager for a bit of a different lens through PWM rather than continuing in credit.  Though I was hopeful on a commission draw structure, they weren't willing to entertain it - and all in all, I've been promised enough theoretical upside that I'm going to see if I can gain any more leverage after spending some time working with this advisor.  Not ideal, but I've learned a few lessons here along the way...

Thanks again, cheers.

 

Did I mention it's energy banking?

For the past year I might as well have been an insolvency expert because I can't even tell you how many deals I've restructured or how frustrating it is that despite working round the clock, none of that will factor into my abysmal bonus for 2020.  Taking a risk hoping for some new experience and long-term payoffs, but yeah, I'd be lying if I said that I'm pumped to announce it to my team later this week.  

 

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