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When Is It Time to Hire and Grow Your Team as a Financial Advisor?
When Is It Time to Hire and Grow Your Team as a Financial Advisor?
If you’re asking whether it’s time to hire, you’re already behind. The most successful advisors don’t wait for overwhelm—they hire to unlock scale, elevate service, and build something bigger than themselves. Discover the five signs it’s time, and exactly how to launch the hiring process.
If you’re wondering whether it’s time to hire, it probably is.
Advisors often wait too long, juggling too much, and justifying the chaos. They tell themselves they’ll hire “once things slow down.” But here’s the truth: growth doesn’t create capacity—capacity creates growth. Delaying hiring can lead to missed opportunities, client dissatisfaction, and a stagnant practice.
Top advisors don’t hire because they’re overwhelmed. They hire because they’re building a business that’s too valuable to stay small. Here are the five clear signals we see every day, indicating our clients are ready to hire, and how to hire the right person:
You're Saying "Yes" to Everything and Everyone
You’re onboarding clients who aren’t ideal, responding to every email yourself, and spending more time on admin than advice.
The undeniable reality: If you’re doing $25/hour tasks while aiming for a $100-200M AUM practice, your business is misaligned.
Your Client Experience Is Slipping
When you find yourself unable to call clients as often as you want, missing birthdays, delaying follow-ups, and scrambling before reviews, it's a clear sign that your client experience is slipping. Maintaining a high-quality client experience is crucial for your reputation and referrals.
The undeniable reality: Capacity isn’t about your time—it’s about protecting the client experience that fuels your reputation and referrals.
You’ve Capped Your Growth
When you started in this business, you spent 90% of your time connecting with people and doing what you loved. You know you need to hire when that flips to doing only 10% of what you love and are excellent at, and 90% of your time doing things you don’t. You know how to grow, but you don’t have the time to pursue it. You’re stuck in the business instead of working on it.
The undeniable reality: The ceiling you’re hitting isn’t revenue—it’s capacity. Hiring breaks that ceiling
You’re the Bottleneck to Everything
Nothing moves without you. Every decision, every deliverable, and every document routes through your inbox. This indicates several traits in advisors that hinder growth: an excessive need for control, a lack of trust, micromanagement, and a deficiency in leadership and mentorship. These behaviors lead to the underutilization of the talent you have in place, which is neither motivating nor inspiring for them, and this can lead to other issues, such as increased staff turnover.
The undeniable reality: If you need to approve every step, you’re not building a business—you’re babysitting one and, unnecessarily, your team.
You’re Losing Energy
You love advising and connecting with people, but the business is draining you. It’s not fun anymore. Tasks that once excited you now feel like a burden. Your energy is your ultimate asset. Protect it by building the right team around you.
The undeniable reality: Your energy is your ultimate asset. Protect it by building the right team around you.
So… Who Do You Hire First?
At APM, we recommend starting this brainstorming by listing the problems you need to solve.
“I need more time” isn’t clear enough. Be as specific as possible. “What would you do with that time if it were freed?” This type of thinking will lead to the title and the job description for the position, empowering you to shape your team and your business.
How to Decide:
- Audit Your Week: Track what you do for 7 days. Circle anything someone else could do 80% as well.
- Group the Tasks: Are they admin, service, or sales-related?
- Match to a Role:
- Admin tasks = Executive Assistant or Client Service Associate
- Planning or prep = Paraplanner or Associate Advisor
- Lead generation = Marketing Assistant
- Business development = Business Development Rep
· Write a 1-page role outcome statement: “Success in this role looks like…”
How to Hire the Right Way (Not the Fast Way)
Hiring isn’t about speed. It’s about fit, clarity, and expectations.
Step-by-Step:
Step 1: Write the outcome, not just the job description.
“You will free me up to meet more ideal clients by handling all client prep and paperwork.”
Step 2: Conduct an interview to assess cultural fit, habits, and skills.
Ask: “Walk me through how you stay organized when juggling multiple tasks.”
Look for initiative, reliability, and alignment with your pace.
This is a big step. If you would like a list of great interview questions to supplement the ones you intend to ask, please reach out to us at APM. We’ll be happy to send some materials to you for a 20-minute session
Step 3: Create a 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day onboarding plan. This structured approach will ensure a smooth transition and set clear expectations, making you feel more organized and prepared.
Define what great looks like at each milestone. Don’t just hope they “figure it out.”
Step 4: Meet weekly for the first 90 days.
Use a simple agenda: What’s working, what’s stuck, what’s next?
Final Thought:
Hiring isn’t about adding hands—it’s about adding horsepower. Done right, the right hire gives you back time, energy, and confidence. They free you to focus on what you do best: leading, connecting, growing, advising. We have several successful resources as well as headhunters for financial advisors that can get you on track.
Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Create the moment by building the team that gets you there.
Your Next 3 Moves to do Now:
- Track your time for one week and circle the tasks you should never do again.
- Write a “Success Looks Like” statement for the role that would help most.
- Schedule a 30-minute block to draft the first version of your job posting.or ask us about our resources and hiring experts.
Thank you for reading! This is what we help advisors do every day!
To book a no-obligation appointment with Jeff to discuss practice management or coaching, click https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm
Jeff Thorsteinson is a partner in Advisor Practice Management, an organization that helps financial advisors build world-class practices through innovative concepts, tools, and systems. Jeff works with individual advisors, investment dealers, insurance firms, and fund companies. For more information about Advisor Practice Management, contact jeff@jeffthorsteinson.com
or 1-800-223-9332, or visit the website at www.apm.coach
Would you like a copy of our Comprehensive Practice Management Checklist for financial advisors?
How About Your Goals for Your Practice in 2025?
While each financial advisor's practice may have a different approach, advisors need to understand where their practice needs help, and will they get the right help for the right part of their practice. What areas does your practice need help with?
Free Resources:
21 Page Technology Checklist to Become a Future-Ready Advisor
Fee Audit Checklist for Ideal Prospects
Updated Comprehensive PracticeManagement Guides
We are here to serve your practice, let’s talk
Contact us to help get clarity around your goals on paper, and have the goals conversation by contacting Jeff at jeff@jeffthorsteinson.com or grant@ghicks.com
Regardless if we work together, let’s have a chat and listen to your biggest practice management concerns to help you get clarity around your future business.
To book a NO obligation conversation with me to discuss practice management or coaching click the following link https://calendly.com/jeffthorsteinson/30-minute-q-a-explore-apm and let’s talk.
Jeff Thorsteinson, Grant Hicks CIM and Advisor Practice Management's combined financial advisor clients manage over 8 billion AUM, and earn over $80 million dollars combined!
