How to recruit financial advisors who are still with you after year one

You're asking someone to build a business on commission, with you as their coach, so the questions that matter aren't on a CV.

• Can they get through the months before their income builds? Ask how they'd cover their bills for the first six months. A candidate with no answer is a candidate you'll lose in month four.
• Do they know people? Most first-year cases come from the advisor's own network, so ask them to name ten people they'd happily call this week.
• Do they take a no well? Ask about the last time they were turned down for something they wanted, and what they did next.
• Will they do the dull part? Ask what they'd do on a Tuesday with no appointments booked.

Turn away the candidate who's joining for a quick commission on their family's policies. They'll write three cases and leave, and those clients will need someone else to look after them.

• Ask your own advisors for two names each quarter, such as a friend who's restless in their job or a client who keeps asking how the work goes.
• Someone who's bought from your team already believes in what you sell, and a few of your clients will want to sell it too.
• Career switchers are worth a coffee: teachers, bank staff and nurses talk to people all day, and many want more say over what they earn.
• Run a short opportunity talk once a month on what the job is and what the first year looks like. Everyone who turns up is a warm candidate.
• LinkedIn and job boards give you volume but the weakest fit, so screen with a 15-minute call before anyone gets an interview.
• In the US, call the pre-licensing schools near you, because their students are already paying to get licensed.

Keep every candidate on one board, with a column per stage and a date for the next touch. Recruitment dies in the gaps between conversations, when nobody follows up for three weeks.

This is where recruiters lose trust. A whiteboard sketch that jumps to a big number in year five looks made up, because nobody can check it. Build the picture from the candidate's own numbers instead, and show your working.

1. Start by asking what they earn now, what they need each month, and what a good year would look like to them.
2. Then show how the income is built. In most agency contracts it has several parts: first-year commission on new cases, production bonuses, renewal commission from earlier clients and, if they build a team later, overrides. Name only the parts your contract pays.
3. Put in their numbers. Use a first-year commission figure they think they could reach, not the one your top producer made.
4. When you get to year one, be plain about it. Renewals only start once there are earlier clients to renew, so the first year is mostly new-case commission and it's the leanest year on the chart.
5. Tell them what every figure depends on: the calls, the appointments and the cases. Say how many appointments a week that takes.
6. Send the numbers you showed afterwards, marked as an illustration, and let them sleep on it.

Never quote a colleague's income as what they'll earn, and never call a figure typical or guaranteed. A recruit who joins expecting the top of the chart in year one is the recruit who quits in month six.

This section is a summary of the official rules, not legal advice. Your firm's compliance team has the final word on your own contracts and products.

Singapore rules

A new advisor becomes an appointed representative of your firm under the Financial Advisers Act. MAS's Notice FAA-N26, in force since 1 April 2024, sets the minimum entry and exam requirements:

• They must be at least 21 years old.
• They need at least one of these: a GCE A Level certificate with passes in three H2 and two H1 subjects, an International Baccalaureate Diploma, a Singapore polytechnic diploma or an equivalent.
• They must meet MAS's fit and proper criteria (Guidelines FSG-G01): honest, competent and of sound financial standing. MAS puts the onus on the firm to show its representative is fit and proper.

To advise on or arrange life policies, including investment-linked policies, they need a valid pass in:

M9 and M9A can be taken together as one combined module, CM-LIP. HI is required under MAS Notice 117 for anyone advising on health insurance. An advisor whose health products carry only critical illness or hospital income benefits doesn't need HI if they've passed M9. The exams are run by the Singapore College of Insurance (SCI).

A pass in RES5 lapses if they don't start as a representative within three years of passing it.

Once they've passed, your firm notifies MAS on Form 3A and certifies them as fit and proper through MAS's CoRe system. Their name then goes on MAS's public register of representatives, which clients can search. MAS charges S$200 for each new notification and S$100 a year per representative.

After their first calendar year, they'll owe continuing professional development every year: 6 core hours on ethics, rules and regulations (or approved CPF courses) and 24 supplementary hours for life policies.

An experienced advisor relocating from overseas can start as a provisional representative, with three months to pass the exams. They need at least three years of relevant experience.

American rules

Each state licenses insurance producers under its own law. The NAIC's Producer Licensing Model Act sets out the uniform standard, and under it:

• Nobody may sell, solicit or negotiate insurance in a state without a licence for that line of authority, such as life or accident and health.
• A resident applicant must be at least 18, pass the state's written exam for each line, and complete a pre-licensing course where the state requires one.
• The state can refuse a licence on the grounds the act lists. Untrue information on the application and a felony conviction are two of them.
• An insurer appoints the producer before they can act as its agent, with the notice filed within 15 days in states that adopted that section.
• No commission may be paid to someone who needed a licence and didn't have one.
• A producer licensed and in good standing in their home state can get a non-resident licence in other states.

If they'll sell variable annuities or mutual funds, they also need FINRA registration: the Securities Industry Essentials exam and the Series 6, taken while sponsored by a FINRA member firm.

Pre-licensing hours, exam fees and background checks differ by state. Check the rules with the recruit's state insurance department; the NAIC keeps a list of all of them.

The first quarter decides whether they're still here at a year. Plan it before they start.

Book the day-30, day-60 and day-90 reviews in both calendars on day one.

Most new advisors don't leave because of one bad month. They leave after a run of weeks where the work felt invisible and nobody noticed.

When calls and appointments show up during the week, a slow week gets a conversation on Wednesday instead of a surprise at month end. That only works if you coach every week too. Give it thirty minutes: the numbers, the open cases, what's blocking them, one skill to practise and one commitment written down.

A first-year advisor closes few cases, but they make plenty of calls and appointments, so recognise those before the income arrives. A short weekly note from them on what worked tells you who's struggling before their numbers do.

At the six-month mark, go back to the numbers you showed on the recruitment call. Put in what they've actually done and show them where it leads if they keep going.

• Recruiting on a big number. The candidate who joins for the year-five figure leaves in year one.
• Hiring everyone who says yes. A weak recruit costs you months of coaching and can leave clients without an advisor.
• Leaving the licence to the recruit. Book the exams with them in week one and check the results.
• Letting them advise before your firm has notified MAS or before the state licence and appointment are in place.
• Coaching only at month end, when the month is already lost.
• Recruiting in bursts. A candidate board that goes quiet for a quarter takes a quarter to refill.

This guide is free. ActivityTracker, the app we make for financial advisors and their managers, is paid. Here's what it does for the recruiting side of your job.

• A recruitment pipeline board with a card per candidate, from first contact to licensed
• A first-90-days project for each new advisor, with the week-one tasks and the day-30, 60 and 90 reviews already in it
• An activity calculator that works back from a yearly first-year commission goal to the appointments and closed cases a month it takes
• One-tap logging and a live team leaderboard, so a quiet week is visible by Wednesday
• Weekly reflections, each answered for the writer, and coaching bookings with you