Are All Advisors Ego Maniacs?

Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.

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Dear Bev,

Are huge egos the norm in the advisor business? This is my third financial advisory firm – I left the first one because the guy who founded it was an ego-maniac. He wanted to control and have the final say on everything. I left there for a great opportunity with a much larger firm.

I interviewed with the COO, who was a woman and really sharp. I never met the founder of the firm because it was characterized that he was “semi-retired.” Not true. He is involved in every single thing that happens at that firm, large or small. I got sick of questions about how I was managing my own clients.

Now I am at my third firm – and lucky because I have loyal clients who have followed me and I have no non-competes that prevent me from taking them with me (I have brought them to the firms, too). I work for a trio of partners and two of them are great, but one is another ego-maniac.

Am I destined to work for people who think they know everything? Is that this business? Should I go out on my own? I have little hubris about what I do. We’re here to help people.

A.E.

Dear A.E.,

I’m sorry to hear of your journey! You don’t say how long you have been in the business but three firms where you are miserably unhappy is not a great track record no matter how many years. You have a few questions in your note to me so I’ll try and answer all of them.