When Do You Need Legal Advice As Part Of An RIA Transition?

When I explain to advisors they likely will want legal advice regarding navigating their departure from their current firm, I sometimes hear a range of responses: “My buddy left the firm last year, and I’m just going to follow what he did.” “I’m already independent, so none of that applies to me.” “I made a transition 7 years ago, so I already have it figured out.” In reality, most advisors, regardless of their current affiliation model, have at least one (if not multiple) reasons to need such advice:  non-solicits, non-competes, Reg SP, broker protocol, deferred comp, forgivable loans, RSUs, taking team members with them, etc. On this episode of the Transition To RIA question & answer series I explain why and how such legal advice is part of a typical transition. I'm Brad Wales with Transition To RIA (TransitionToRIA.com). This is episode #145 of my question and answer series where I answer RIA related questions I get from advisors just like you. What I do: At Transition To RIA I help financial advisors and teams between $50M and $1B understand everything there is to know about WHY and HOW to transition their practice to the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) model. RESOURCES & LINKS ___________________________________________ 🔹 Website: https://TransitionToRIA.com/ 🔹 Show notes: https://TransitionToRIA.com/when-do-y... 🔹 Contact me: https://transitiontoria.com/contact/ 🔹 List of all questions I've answered: https://transitiontoria.com/videos/ 🔹 Podcast: https://transitiontoria.com/podcast/ 🔹 Whitepaper ("11 Ways The Economics Of The RIA Model Are Superior To Other Advisor Affiliation Options"): https://transitiontoria.com/whitepapers/ 🔹 Transcription of video: When do you need legal advice as part of an RIA transition? That is today's question on the Transition To RIA question & answer series. It is episode #145. Hi, I'm Brad Wales with Transition To RIA where we help you understand everything there is to know about why and how to transition your practice to the RIA model. If you're not already there, head to TransitionToRIA.com where’ll find this entire series in video format, podcast format. There are articles, there are whitepapers. A Vendor Profile Series. All kinds of things to help you better understand the model. Again, TransitionToRIA.com. On today's episode we're going to talk about a very important topic that is applicable to pretty much every transition. The title of the episode is about the RIA model, but a lot of these topics are applicable if you're making a change within any of the channels within the industry. But we’re going to focus on the RIA model. So, the question comes is… “do I need legal advice as part of the process of transitioning my practice from wherever I am now into the RIA model?” I talk a lot in these episodes about how there are a lot of steps that go into this whole process. Both from first learning more about the RIA model, is it even something you should be exploring? Will it even be a fit for your practice? Are you going to accomplish what you hope you will accomplish by moving to it? So, everything from that first step to understanding all the pathways that you could take into the model. And then ultimately all the different pieces that you must put into place. One of those pieces is to get legal advice to help you with the departure from your current firm. Now, long run there might be instances where you need or want legal advice related to that going forward state, or the operation of your RIA or whatever the case is. But in today's episode what we're primarily talking about is do you need legal advice to help you navigate the departure from your current firm? The short answer with that is in almost every instance, the answer is yes. Now, some of you might be thinking, well, I'm already independent, I'm at an independent broker-dealer, I don't need legal advice. Part of what I wanted to do with this episode is to show where, even under those “independent” scenarios you might be in now, it's still advisable to get the legal advice. And for those of you that are in a more captive W2 type environment, you certainly will understand why you want to have legal advice. So the short answer is, yes you generally will always need and want that advice. What I want to go over on today's episode is to give you some of the variables that will drive the need to do that. Now my goal here is to not scare you from making a transition by pointing out all the legal ramifications or things you want to make sure you navigate correctly. What I wouldn't mind doing, if that's what it takes, is to scare you into accepting the fact that you should get this legal advice. Con't.... View remainder of transcription here: https://TransitionToRIA.com/when-do-y... Disclaimer: https://transitiontoria.com/terms/