Guiding growth

Michelle Lynch turns her talents toward organic growth and advisor success at every career phase.

At the dawn of an advisor’s career, the Advisor Mastery Program is a guide. As advisors grow their practices and pivot with the market, Practice Management & Education is a partner. And when the next chapter beckons, Succession & Acquisition Planning is a facilitator.

At the intersection of these teams is Michelle Lynch, whose more than 20 years at Raymond James has brought her ever closer to the day-to-day and year-to-year experience of financial advising as a business, as a practice and as a career.

“Creating policies, procedures and programming from the home office is one thing, they’re always well-intentioned and designed with purpose. But living them out day-to-day gives you a very different perspective,” Michelle said.

Michelle recently concluded a four-year tenure as the Raymond James & Associates Tampa Bay complex manager, a high profile position as it’s the hometown of the home office. Earlier this year, she returned to the home office as the new senior vice president of Practice Management & Growth Consulting. This combination of experiences has made her an ideal advocate for advisors’ practical needs inside the home office.

“Raymond James is a firm that prides itself on its advisor-centric approach,” Michelle said, “and part of that culture means always being willing to say we could be doing things even better.”

Even putting aside the complication of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michelle said her first days at the Tampa Bay complex quickly reset her assumptions.

“My objective was to clear roadblocks out of advisors’ way so they could focus solely on their business. I came in thinking I knew more than I did,” Michelle recalled. “Having 16 or 17 years at the firm at that time, I had a pretty good rolodex of people I could go to if I had questions.

“Then I realized just how much I thought I knew that was actually different in practice.”

She also recognized that home office resources often weren’t top-of-mind for advisors at the moments they were most needed. Amid the daily noise, advisors could struggle to identify the barriers hindering their progress.

In this new role, Michelle aims to address both sides of that dynamic.

“The goal is growth. Our job is to help advisors identify their hurdles – help them have those ‘a-ha’ moments – so they can take the next step. And while our programs are well-oiled machines, that doesn’t free us from the need to stay relevant to advisors as the industry changes.”

Building a bigger next generation of advisor

The industry’s demographic challenges are well documented.

“Across the industry, we’ll be facing a shortage of nearly one hundred thousand advisors as they retire and there are not enough people to replace them,” Michelle said.

Broker/dealers that learn to solve it will be well positioned for growth in the next era of the business.

The Raymond James Advisor Mastery Program (AMP), which has a reputation as a highly regarded on-the-job training program for new advisors, is doing its part. It has been successful, boasting an admirable completion rate and a perennially strong cohort. But we want it to do even more, Michelle said.

“We have about 600 AMP participants actively contributing to Raymond James & Associates. Since 2021, they have accounted for 22% of the firm’s net new assets – excluding established recruits. That’s pretty powerful. To help make a dent in the demographics, it makes sense to significantly expand the number of AMP advisors.”

Concurrently, the firm will continue to support teambuilding and enhance the incentives for fostering new talent, Michelle said.

Client service associates and home office associates are another underutilized resource. While programs already exist to onramp both groups into advising careers, Michelle thinks there is room for improvement. Expanding these opportunities may also help address one driver of the looming advisor gap: Few pre-retirees are eager to hand over their life savings for a 22-year-old recent graduate to manage. Fair or not, most potential clients want an advisor with a little more seasoning. A branch or the home office could be where that happens.

“I always encourage recent college graduates who want to become advisors to go work somewhere else in the firm. Get exposure, learn the lingo. We’re a greenhouse for growing the next generation of advisors,” Michelle said.

Mastering the mid-career inflection point

Another one of Michelle’s focus areas is helping advisors better manage the mid-career inflection point, which is the realm of the Experienced Advisor Coaching, Practice Intelligence, and Branch Admin Development teams.

One-on-one and group-based coaching opportunities help advisors pivot their offerings and approach to serve the sophisticated needs of a high-net-worth clientele.

“As an advisor grows their practice, it’s about more than raising the minimum. The practice has to be elevated. That’s where coaches can help advisors recast their practice to meet the higher-complexity needs on associated with a more affluent client,” Michelle said. “These coaching programs are powerful, and I believe are the most integral part of how we’re helping experienced advisors grow.”

Concurrently, as advisors’ practices continue to grow in size and complexity, time becomes their most strained resource. The path toward growth thus lies through efficiency.

Technology plays a critical role as “one of the most powerful growth levers we have today,” Michelle said, as is investing in support staff. The STEER program, which trains support staff members deeply on specific topics like efficiency or operations, “enables them to add tremendous value to the business.” 

“But everyone’s business is unique so it’s hard to have one-size-fits-all solutions,” Michelle said. The first step, then, is to identify potential improvements.

Michelle encourages all advisors with growth ambitions to take a Start Smart Assessment, a 15-minute questionnaire that can help identify potential areas of improvement. A more involved Gap Analysis assessment – taking about 45 minutes – provides a deeper look and helps advisors create a customized roadmap while identifying group and one-on-one coaching opportunities.

“From assessments to coaching, these are strong programs in high demand,” Michelle said. To increase their availability and make it easier for advisors to pick a level of engagement that’s right for them, she is seeking to build a platform for on-demand virtual coaching.

“We want to build a product for advisors who don’t need that full coaching experience – maybe they just want to dig deeper into one or two topics. We want to better meet advisors where they are,” Michelle said.

Succeeding in succession

Since its creation, the Succession & Acquisition Planning team has been another feather in the Raymond James cap, helping to add material meaning to the firm’s commitment to advisor book ownership while helping growth-oriented advisors add to their book of business.

Its Catastrophic Planning team has also been a success story, with signed plans on file for 86% of Raymond James advisors. (“Our goal is 100%, for the sake of advisors’ beneficiaries,” Michelle said.)

“The Succession & Acquisition team is amazing,” Michelle said. “They’re excellent with the transaction, the cash flow conversations, connecting buyers and sellers. I think the next phase is bringing in the behavioral psychology of it. There’s a huge emotional aspect to retirement; there’s a big emotional aspect to buying a book. I want us to think about how we coach through that entire process and follow through.”

Building on strong foundations

Throughout her career, Michelle has made her mark as an improvement specialist, taking things that work well and making them that much better.

Coming from a marketing agency background, she was originally hired by Chief Marketing Officer Mike White to institute an agency-style workflow for serving both internal and advisor clients, becoming the firm’s first marketing account manager. From there, she helped Eagle Asset Management, part of Raymond James Investment Management, hone its marketing and sales approach.

Michelle was later tapped to lead the Women Financial Advisors Network and is credited with rapidly growing its membership under a focus on career and practice success. From there, she jumped to the working edge of the business, supporting PCG Sales through recruitment, retention and advisor development.

In each of these roles, an overarching truth has helped her make a difference.

“Nothing stands still. The world moves, the market moves, client expectations increase. If you want to stay in the same spot, you have to keep stepping forward. You can’t assume you’ve got it all figured out, because to grow, you have to double the effort.

And above all, you’ve got to listen.”