-We were purchased by a private equity firm and things are spiraling out of control quickly. Prior to our purchase and merger, we never had layoffs, sales goals, or pressure from management to hit numbers. That all changed! It takes the focus away from our clients. Now it's all about gathering assets. Growth goals we need to hit to justify our valuation are not reasonable.
-Much slower career development compared to the competition. My career would have been leaps and bounds ahead of where it is now if I had gone to work for a competitor. I feel I wasted a large portion of my working career here. Many of my colleagues moved on to other firms and they are well ahead of me now. I wasted years hoping I would get promoted here and it still has not happened despite excelling in every respect.
-Becoming uncompetitive - management fee begins at a hefty 1.75%. I felt this was justified a few years ago. Now planning teams only have the resources to deliver the services you typically get with a robo advisor charging about 1/8 of that fee. Fees don't justify the services we provide.