Are you a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ looking for a way to grow your business and maximize operational efficiency? The OSJ (Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction) model may be your solution.
By acting as a central hub for managing multiple independent advisory practices, a large enterprise can assist with potentially help you reduce costs, create more efficient management structures, and reclaim work hours. In this blog post, we dive into the specifics, analyzing this model’s benefits to help you decide whether an OSJ is the right fit for your firm.
- Economies of scale: Increased output, lower costs
- Compliance management and recouped work hours
- Practice/operational management & workflows
- Ensuring a comfortable corporate cultural fit
- Pricing, compensation, and your potential edge
Economies of Scale: Increased Output, Lower Costs
As an independent financial firm, you want to increase your output while keeping costs low. This can be a tricky balancing act. Fortunately, there is a way to do this: by taking advantage of economies of scale. An Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction (OSJ) can facilitate this by providing access to resources that might otherwise be too expensive for a small practice to deploy.
If you’re wondering what “economies of scale” are, they are cost advantages achieved through production increases due to larger orders or operations over time. When a business takes advantage of this, it can produce more output at lower costs than it would have been able to maintain while it produced smaller quantities.
An OSJ can provide the infrastructure you need to begin. These large enterprises typically provide compliance monitoring, risk management consulting, technology setup/maintenance, and customer service training to help reduce operational costs while increasing efficiency and productivity.
In other words, an OSJ can be a great way for a small financial firm to take advantage of economies of scale without having to invest in the expensive resources required. By utilizing its services, you can gain access to the same resources that large companies use while saving time and money in the process.
Compliance Management & Recouped Work Hours
As a financial advisor, you know that maintaining your compliance program is a time-consuming task that takes away from other areas of your business. There’s no getting around its seemingly ever-changing requirements. Fortunately, you do not have to tackle them alone: An OSJ can help you save time and resources by taking on some or all of your compliance management needs.
One of the primary advantages of working with one is having access to professionals who specialize in regulatory requirements. These professionals are often more knowledgeable about the latest rules and regulations than you may have time to be. As a result, they’re well-equipped to keep compliance issues from costing you potential penalties.
Meanwhile, delegating compliance management responsibilities to an OSJ can help free up more time for growing your business. This doesn’t just mean possibly more bandwidth for client acquisition and relationship building: It can also enable you to focus on providing quality services and advice to clients without worrying about regulatory issues. This, in turn, could lead to increased client satisfaction and improved retention rates.
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Practice/Operational Management & Workflows
Working with an OSJ can also help your firm improve its efficiency by assisting with the streamlining of your operational processes. The right one will be home to seasoned financial professionals with a keen eye for inefficiencies in your business model, allowing them to offer insights on how to best improve it.
At the same time, working with a large enterprise can reduce your risk by providing oversight into the firm’s daily activities. For example, an OSJ may help you, as a fiduciary, steer clear of potential breaches of duty or errors. This means potentially avoiding legal actions or damage to your reputation.
Ensuring a Comfortable Corporate Cultural Fit
Before you start looking for the right OSJ, take some time to evaluate your core needs and values. It’s important to have a clear idea of exactly what your company stands for, first. Without it, you can’t make sure that any potential partnership aligns with your values. Doing this can also help guide your search and narrow down potential options before moving forward.
It’s essential that both your firm and any large enterprise you’re considering working with are on the same page about key issues such as customer service standards and operational procedures. This help can ensure that there won’t be any surprises or miscommunication later as you’re working together.
To get a better understanding of the culture at an OSJ, ask questions about their employees, clients, and customer service policies during interviews. Don’t forget to do your research, either. Before making any decisions, read reviews from other customers and consider conducting background checks on your potential partner-to-be. Knowing that you are making an informed decision, based on facts rather than assumptions, may give you peace of mind. You’ll be doing yourself a favor by not depending on guesswork.
Research can also yield a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each possible partner. That, in turn, can make it easier to weigh your different options side-by-side against each other before making a final decision.
Pricing, Compensation, and Your Potential Edge
As the financial industry continues to evolve, it’s essential that you make sure your fees are competitive enough to attract new clients and retain existing ones. Fortunately, having an office of supervisory jurisdiction in your corner can give you access to more flexible pricing options than those offered by other firms. It may also provide the ability to offer different types of fee structures, depending on what works best for your clients.
An OSJ can also help you create a compensation structure that meets both your needs and those of your staff members. This type of arrangement allows for greater flexibility with incentives such as bonuses, commission structure changes, and other performance-based rewards for exceptional employees.
Additionally, allying with a large enterprise can facilitate access to more comprehensive benefits packages, which may help you attract and retain top talent within your firm. Since Evolution Financial Advisors is an OSJ, we’re able to offer you competitive pricing through Securities America. This is an example of a potential edge that your competitors may not be able to leverage. Contact us for specifics on how we can benefit your wealth management firm’s business processes now and in the long term.
