Kevin Taylor knows how challenging the Wealth Managers career can be, especially for those who feel they are on their own. But after working in a leadership role in the financial services industry for 30+ years, he also knows how to coach financial professionals toward success and surround them with the right resources and people to achieve their goals.

As a Business Development Director with 1847Financial in Atlanta, GA., Kevin is one of our key recruiters, focused on helping 1847Financial recruit Wealth Managers.

We asked Kevin what Wealth Managers are looking for in a partner today and how he and his team are connecting with key prospective teammates and helping them reach new levels of success in their practices.

What do you think most financial professionals want today?
They're all looking for a little something different, depending on who they are and where they've been on their career path. But there is one common thread: I think we all want to feel like we're part of something bigger than ourselves.

A lot of financial professionals I have talked with feel like they're on an island. In some ways, many of them (and the companies they write business for) still haven’t fully recovered from the social distancing and virtual meetings of the pandemic.

When a financial professional calls someone for help or support and they don’t answer, that’s usually not a big deal. But when you have the feeling that you're on your own, isolated, and then you call someone for help and they don't answer the phone … that can become a much bigger problem, especially when it happens regularly. It can become this snowball effect emphasizing that you really are on your own, not getting the help that you need to succeed.

     |     This industry can be very challenging if you are by yourself.

Most financial professionals want to be part of a team, while still being the masters of their own destiny, running their own business. We provide the opportunity for them to be in business for themselves but not feel like they are by themselves.

And some of them want to know they have a safety net underneath them if they get into trouble. Many of my folks have told me they really feel like we have their back; they appreciate knowing we are there to help if they need it.

It's that feeling of security, knowing that we're in this with them, and we do have their backs.

We also help people who are stuck in the rut of “getting ready to get ready.” They're afraid to take action so we work a lot on execution and implementation.

For some of them, we give them that extra confidence they need to raise to the next level, and that success ultimately feeds into additional action and greater success.

They want to own their practice, but they want to be part of a team. Everybody wants to belong to something right? But they want the ability to make their own decisions, and we celebrate that. We encourage them to build their own company if they want, or for those who already have their own DBA, to develop into new market geographies or market demographics.

For example, Don Warnke owns Westside Advisors, and we are committed to helping him grow his company by opening up additional markets and expanding his influence. We encourage our teammates to build their own company, and we help them build it or take it into a new level!

What are some key success stories with financial professionals you've worked with?
There are some that I’ve worked with closely in the past, and they're so successful where they are, I have difficulty moving them here. One guy here in Atlanta, I hired him out of the University of South Carolina back in the late 90s.

He had been with his prior company a long time, and I remember at one point he almost left the business until we had a heart-to-heart conversation with him in my office.

“If you're going stay here, how do you want to do it?” I asked him. He said, “I want to work with dentists.”  So I said, “Tomorrow you're going drive to Augusta, to the Medical College of Georgia, and introduce yourself to the Dean of the Dental school, tell him what your passion is and what you want to do”.

“Start meeting new dentists. Rather than looking for dentists who’ve been in the business 30 years and have an advisor at another firm that they’ve been working with for 12 years.”

“You’ve just graduated from college; work with the same type of people.”

Well, that’s what he did, and he's still in the business, with a great practice. He just opened a big office with two partners. Whenever I see him, he hugs me and thanks me for our conversation decades ago.

Then there are the recent successes like Shaun O’Quinn. He was in a captive situation before coming here. Now that he’s with us, he's fully licensed and involved in wealth management.

He's opened another office down on the coast, and he’s moving into a more affluent market. He's developed a great relationship with a strong CPA. He's getting ready to explode his business.

That’s what I look for; I look for people that have influence in their community. They have existing markets. They’ve grown a successful practice, but they may have plateaued at their current firm. A person like that has so much opportunity here. We can literally surround them with all the resources they need to move to that next level of success. 

What does your team do better than any others, that really stands out in the market?
I think a big piece is that we are willing to go to the financial professional and meet them where they are. That's twofold: It’s geographic - we’ll meet them where they are physically, and it’s related to their career–we’ll meet them where they are in their career path.

Geographically, again Shaun O'Quinn in Jesup, Georgia is a great example. That is a 4½ hour drive from Atlanta. Georgia is a big state. When he was referred to me as a possible candidate, he had already decided to join another firm. I drove to Jesup to meet with him.

He decided to join us instead, and I’ve since asked him why he joined us. He said, “You came to see me”.

No one else came to see me. Everyone else trying to recruit me wanted to do everything over Zoom.

So, we’ll meet you geographically; but we’ll also meet you wherever you are in your career. Wherever you are in your career, we will wrap resources around you to help you elevate and grow. We will help you grow your practice to whatever level you would like.

I think that really makes us different. I think with so many companies, financial professionals become a number. And it's simply the size of their book that determines how much help they get.

It’s easy for financial professionals to feel alone out there.

I think we're really good at going out, seeing them in the field, and providing that one-to-one support.

How long have you been working in financial services?
I started right here in Atlanta in 1983. So, 40 years ago. I've been in the same city my entire career, which is a little unusual, but it's benefited me quite a bit.

It’s helped me build a really good network of people.  I’ve spent time with them and really grown in the industry with them for years; it's been great.

I came to the industry a different way than most people. After college I started doing some research and talking to a lot of people about careers, including my godfather. He was in the insurance business, and I had seen his lifestyle while I was growing up.

I talked to him about the insurance business, and that conversation motivated me to start walking into insurance companies in Atlanta. I interviewed many companies, which he suggested I do. I landed with Prudential.

I was with Prudential for 15 years and worked up into management with them for a while. Then I had a corporate role, director of agency development, where I reported directly to the Vice President of Sales for the Southeast. I traveled to offices to help managing partners develop processes to help them keep their offices profitable.

Then a lateral move to MassMutual and eventually to Allstate Financial Services where I served as Regional Vice-President of Sales for the Southeast.

How long have you been working with 1847Financial, and what caught your attention
I had been thinking for a while that I really wanted to work with directly financial professionals again. I wanted to go back to a role where I was consulting with financial professionals daily and really helping them elevate their practices.

About four years ago I got a call from Tom Parks. There was an opening in Atlanta at the time for a leadership role.

So Tom and I talked for several months. What I liked about the opportunity was the way the firm system was set up with 1847Financial, being a truly open architecture platform … that, along with representing such a great company like Penn Mutual, with a great product portfolio. Yet the financial professional has the ability to do whatever is right for the client, whatever the client needs.

     |     Our financial professionals have the ability to do whatever is right for the client.

Our structure is done in a way that financial professionals can truly be independent, yet have resources and a team around them, so they don't feel alone. And I think that's what really attracted me to the concept. And then, talking with Tom Parks ... his philosophy and mine really matched on how we wanted to lead and how we wanted to grow.

So, right from the beginning, Tom and I blended well. We were on the same page about the firm system and the value prop for our financial professionals.

     |     It's not about us.

Tom and I have had this conversation many times. I've had my career. I rose to the executive leadership ranks with other companies. I really wanted to come back to what I'm doing now because it's really where my passion is. It's truly not about me; it’s not about Tom Parks.

It’s about helping people like Shaun O'Quinn in Jesup, Georgia. Helping Shaun build a firm to expand his influence, so he can help more clients. “How can we really help elevate their practices, broaden their client base?” These are the questions I’m asking myself all the time, so we help our financial professionals serve more people…and serve those people better. That's our goal.

Do you have any quotes or sayings that you like to live by?
My dad had a quote that he used all the time, “Use what you have to the best of your ability and things will always get better.”

I find that in our industry; a lot of people don't start something because they need something new to do it. Well, do the very best you can with what you have until you get something new; that way you’re always progressing. Sometimes that progression will be faster than others, but what really matters is that you are constantly moving forward.

What advice do you give financial professionals who are looking to make a change?
Do your homework.

If you're making a change, make sure you do your homework. Make sure you understand the contract you're getting involved in. Make sure that contract has enough flexibility to give you the freedom to build what you want to build. Make sure it protects what you build, that it's actually yours; make sure you own your business.

I think too many advisors just take for face value what they're getting into. I’ve talked with so many people who have been with their company for five or 10 years, and now they find out they don’t own their clients. The company owns those accounts.

Do your homework.

Oh, here’s another quote for you, “The slower you go, the faster you get there.” Don't rush into anything.

Want to learn more? Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn.

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