How to Find a Mentor for Your Financial Advisor Firm

Establishing a successful advisory business takes time, and having someone who can offer feedback and support, or share ideas, can be valuable. Working with a mentor is an opportunity to learn from a more experienced advisor and receive guidance on the best ways to pursue growth for your firm. If you’re looking for a financial advisor mentor, it’s important to choose the right person.

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Understanding the Role of a Financial Advisor Mentor

A mentor is someone who’s reached the level of success you aspire to. They’ve experienced the challenges and overcome the roadblocks that go along with building a financial advisor business.

Mentors can share what they’ve learned and help you refine your plan for success. They can also help you stay motivated when your journey feels difficult, and encourage you to pursue your goals.

A mentor won’t do the work of growing your business for you, but they can point you in the right direction and help you avoid the mistakes they might have made. They’re not just one thing, but many: advisor, coach, teacher, collaborator and ally.

How to Find a Financial Advisor Mentor

There are several avenues you might pursue to find a mentor, but before you take the first step, ask yourself one question: What do you hope to get out of working with a mentor?

It’s important to understand your needs and expectations going in. You may already have someone in mind that you’d like to connect with, but if they’re not equipped to meet your needs, then the pairing might not make sense.

Once you have clarity on what you expect from a mentoring relationship, you can try these tips for finding a mentor.

Tap Your Network

Your network is a logical choice for finding a mentor if you’ve taken the time to build professional and personal connections. Look at your list of contacts, your LinkedIn connections and people you follow on social media, and consider the following:

• Who do you know who might be open to the idea of a mentoring relationship?
• Do you have any connections who might know someone?
• If you have someone in mind, but they’re not part of your financial advisor network, how comfortable do you feel reaching out to them?

If you’re in the initial stages of your career and your professional network is limited, you might ask friends or family members if they have any suggestions or recommendations. You could also put out feelers through your alumni network, and any professional associations or organizations you belong to.

Attend Industry Events

Attending financial advisor conferences, workshops and other in-person events can yield opportunities to add new contacts to your network and potentially connect with a mentor. These types of events can bring together advisors from a variety of backgrounds, and they often include scheduled time for mingling and interaction.

Use the time to your advantage, and introduce yourself and get to know some of the other advisors in attendance. Having conversations, even if they’re relatively brief, can shed some light on an advisor’s personality.

That’s important in mentoring relationships. If your personalities clash, the relationship is likely to yield little value for either of you.

Talk to Your Colleagues

If you feel comfortable doing so, you might ask other members of your team or management about their experiences with mentoring.

They might be able to offer tips on how to make the right connection, or direct you to someone who’s looking for a mentee. You could also ask them what they found most valuable about being mentored, and what advice they may have to make the most of the experience.

Collaborate

Collaboration is one of the best ways to increase your brand’s visibility, particularly if you’re relatively new to the financial services space. For example, being a guest on an established financial advisor or influencer’s podcast is a chance to promote your business to their audience.

A collaboration or partnership could also turn into a mentoring relationship if the person you’re working with is open to the idea of coaching or advising you.

Get Matched Online

If you’ve tried other methods to find a mentor, but haven’t had any luck, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) has a program that can help.

Mentor Engage allows you to enroll as a mentee and search for mentors that fit your preferred criteria. You’ll need to create a mentee profile so that mentors can get to know you and your background.

How to Ask Someone to Mentor You

Once you find someone that you’d like to mentor you, the next step is making the ask. If you’re not sure how to approach it, these tips can help:

• Prepare your case. Before you sit down with a mentor candidate, think about why you want to work with them specifically. You should be able to clearly define your needs and what you hope to gain from the relationship.
• Ask for a meeting. Your candidate is likely a busy person, and you should respect that by asking if you can have 30 minutes or an hour of their time to chat. When it’s time to meet, show up ready to describe what you need and be prepared to answer any questions they might have.
• Commit to the process. Mentoring works best when both sides are all in and ready to fulfill their respective roles. Offer your candidate reassurance that you’re ready to dedicate your time and energy to the mentoring relationship

Your candidate may need time to think over your proposal. Let them know that you appreciate them taking the meeting and that you understand they may be too busy for a mentoring relationship right now.

That allows them a chance to politely decline. Consider a follow-up call or email if you don’t hear anything after a few weeks.

Bottom Line

Working with a mentor can help you level up your approach to building your business. Evaluating what you need and how much commitment you’re able to offer can give you perspective on whether mentoring might be right for you.

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

• Effective marketing is one of the building blocks to success. While you might count on referrals to bring new clients your way, word of mouth only goes so far. Working with an advisor marketing platform can help you get a step closer to your goals while freeing up more time to focus on your existing clients. Schedule a demo with SmartAsset AMP to learn how you can benefit from its holistic marketing approach.
• Planning can help you make the most of your mentor-mentee relationship. Sit down with your mentor to establish some clear goals and, if possible, develop a schedule for regular meetings and check-ins by phone or email. Follow through on any tasks your mentor sets for you and communicate clearly and promptly. Above all, show respect and gratitude for the time your mentor is giving you and be polite in every interaction.

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