14 years ago, I had enough. I was tired of working for other people because I wanted to bet on myself and not being told no, even by my wife (who didn’t think going on my own was smart). Before I went on my own, a buddy asked me to talk to a law firm partner, who said to justify a $150,000 salary for his firm, I needed to draw $400,000 in business. Like I’ve said many times before, if I could draw $400k in business, what did I need him for?
Consolidation in the retirement plan business is a sad concept to me because it means that people will lose their jobs. I worked for a third-party administrator and when we got purchased, I said that when there is a corporate transaction, change is inevitable. Of course, one of the employees ratted me out to the bosses and I was told I was running morale in a business with the worst morale. The problem with why there is consolidation is that bigger companies need to generate revenue and profits, lines of businesses that don’t generate enough revenue and profit are unloaded. It’s why Proctor and Gamble gave up Folgers and Pringles.
I will be here until it’s time to go play golf full-time in Florida. I keep my expenses low, so the margins are still fine. Larger businesses have to have offices office staff, and overhead. It’s why that law firm is less than half the size it was in 2010. They eliminated law firm partners that had union clients when some unions were only getting charged $85 an hour. Every business with multiple lines will see what generates revenues and profits and what doesn’t. If your sole business is the retirement plan business, you don’t have that problem.
