In addition to the guidance and support your local leadership provides,
you can tap into our product and sales support professionals. These highly qualified
subject matter experts are dedicated to professional growth and have achieved advanced designations in
their respective fields of expertise.
Our product and sales support teams deliver superior service and are enthusiastic
about putting their knowledge and skills to work for you. Most importantly,
they have been in your shoes, understand your challenges and anticipate your
needs. They will help you develop an action plan that capitalizes
on your strengths and works for your unique book of business.
Financial Advisor Sales Team (FAST)
The Financial Advisor Sales Team is a pre-sale case consultation service staffed
with subject matter experts committed to providing detailed, direct and responsive
product and planning sales support to advisors and field leaders.
Investment Sales
The Regional Directors – Investment Sales (RDIS) deliver wholesale investment
product support, offer portfolio development consultations, and act as a presenter
for client and prospecting events utilizing our thematic Market Matters seminars.
They provide timely insight into the investment processes and our current
economic/market outlook for the Waddell & Reed Advisors Funds, Ivy Funds, Ivy
Funds Variable Insurance Portfolios and Waddell & Reed InvestEd Portfolios. Your
RDIS also provides resourceful consultative assistance for fee-based investment
management products including MAP, SPA, SMAs and UMAs.
Supporting the RDIS is the Internal Investment Sales & Support team, which works
with advisors to understand the investment products and how to position them in a
client’s portfolio.
Planning and Practice Development
The Regional Directors – Planning and Practice Development (RDPPD ) are industryseasoned
professionals dedicated to enhancing your practices’ efficiency, revenue,
profitability and ultimately, the relationships you establish with your clients. Through
group meetings and in-depth, one-on-one engagements, they coach on the
effective use and positioning of products and services, a comprehensive financial
planning approach and leveraging technology to increase efficiency, productivity and
the client experience.
In short, the Regional Directors sole job is to help you efficiently and profitably grow
your business. Your RDPPD can:
- Help with creative client/prospecting event ideas, assist with the planning and attend the event, if desired.
- Show you how to grow sales and revenue through comprehensive financial planning.
- Help you conduct a detailed analysis of your practice, indentify the best opportunities to enhance its profitability and put a plan in place that will get results.
Retirement Plan Sales
The Retirement Plans Sales Consultants (RPSC) provide global support for your
retirement plans marketing and sales efforts by: responding to advanced pre-sale
questions; offering plan type recommendations; and promoting issues-focused
marketing. RPSCs are the front-line connection to, and authority for, our retirement
plan platforms and the products, issues, and activities directly attributed to them.
In addition, the RPSCs provide prospecting strategies, presentation and closing
techniques and plan implementation consultation. Your retirement plan sales efforts
are further supported by Retirement Plan Sales Specialists who answer questions
on plan parameters, platforms, products, government legislation and
sales resources.
Financial Planning
Our team of highly experienced financial planning professionals provides ongoing
support and development for our suite of financial planning products and services.
In addition, our Advanced Planning Case Consultants are on hand to assist you with
complex financial planning analysis in conjunction with FOCUSPlan Premier.
Business Solutions
This multi-faceted business unit focuses on making you more productive by
providing a distinct business technology toolset. They recommend and communicate
necessary service model infrastructure; research opportunities for enhanced
efficiency in our business processes, applications and tracking; advocate and execute
strategic planning to most effectively achieve our mission; and deploy and support
technology tools and resources.
Brokerage Services
We have chosen to partner with Pershing, LLC as our clearing firm. Pershing is the
industry’s largest global business solutions provider, offering unequaled experience
built over seven decades of serving financial organizations like ours. While we’ve
selected an industry leader in Pershing, our support doesn’t end there. Rather
than relinquishing all responsibility, we maintain internal ownership of the process
to bring you the best of our in-house capabilities combined with the industry’s
most reliable and scalable clearing infrastructure. Brokerage Services facilitates
account opening, transferring assets, the movement of cash, purchase and sale of
general securities, trading of mutual funds and other transactions. Each department
within the Brokerage Services Division works on your behalf and is trained and
empowered to get you the results you need.