ActivityTracker

Glossary

Agency manager: what they do, how they're paid, and what MAS holds them to

An agency manager is a financial advisor who leads a team of other advisors, recruiting, training and supervising them, and is paid partly on the business the team writes.

How it works

Titles vary by firm. Unit manager, group manager and agency manager are common, often in tiers, where a senior manager leads managers who lead advisors. Most keep their own clients too.

The job is four things: recruiting new advisors, getting them licensed and started, coaching them week by week, and supervising how they sell. Pay usually mixes their own commission with an override on their team's business, plus any bonuses in their contract.

MAS's word for this role is supervisor, and its balanced scorecard, in Notice FAA-N20, covers supervisors as well as advisors:

  • If a manager is paid on variable income only, and so is their team, 60% of the manager's variable income each quarter is measured against how their advisors are graded.
  • On each advisor's business, the manager gets the same percentage of that measured portion as the advisor does. If an advisor keeps 75% of theirs, so does the manager.
  • A manager in a higher tier who's paid on an advisor's business counts as that advisor's supervisor too.

Under MAS's Guidelines FAA-G14, a manager graded Unsatisfactory should have their supervision reviewed, and their firm may cut their team or stop them recruiting. Two Unsatisfactory quarters in a row keep them out of any supervisory role for at least a year.

Worked example, with made-up figures: a manager has 8 advisors. In one week, 2 have logged nothing and 1 is behind on a first-year licence exam. The FYC for the month won't show any of that for weeks. The manager's week is the calls to those three.

In the US, "agency manager" often means someone who runs an independent agency's office: staff, service and sales. This page covers the manager who leads financial advisors.

Where it shows up in your week

A manager's week starts with who's slipping. ActivityTracker for agency managers shows each advisor's pledge beside what they've logged, and lists anyone with nothing logged for 7 days.

Questions advisors ask

Sources

The month's FYC comes late.

The week's activity doesn't have to.

Book a walkthrough See pricing