If you’re leaving your financial advisory firm and starting your own, it can be complicated to determine if you’re allowed to take your clients with you. It may depend on the contract that you signed and the manner of your exit.
But one thing that is true is that your clients do have the option to switch firms. The client is never obligated to stay with the same financial firm forever, and some clients will independently decide to follow their advisors when they start their own firms. That’s why communication with your clients is so important.
Why are you leaving?
One of the most important things to talk to clients about is why you’ve decided to leave. You may think that it’s obvious, as you’d like to have more freedom over your schedule and the decisions that you make. But simply expressing that to your clients can help to put their minds at ease if they’re worried about the change. It can also help to show what some of the benefits may be for them.
There are, after all, many reasons to leave a financial firm. It may have been financially advantageous for you to do so. Perhaps you had a falling out with people working at the current firm and disagreed with their strategies. Perhaps you just feel that you can offer your clients better, more personalized service on your own.
The more information you can provide to your clients about why you’ve made this decision, the easier it is for them to make a wise decision about what they should do next. You also want to make sure that all industry regulations are followed and that you understand exactly what legal steps to take as you work to start this new firm.