Building High-Performing Teams: Build

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1 Building High-Performing Teams: Build Interview Guides Interviewing is a critical part of the attracting and onboarding new talent process. Whether you are looking to add support staff, a junior advisor or a long-term partner, you will want to be sure you ask the right questions, thoroughly evaluate candidates and assess cultural fit to avoid a bad hire. Your approach may be different for each role you are looking to fill, however, effective interviewing questions and techniques can play a significant role in your ability to bring on the right talent for all positions. INTERVIEWING PROCESS 1 Phone Screening Support Staff Having sifted through resumes and developed a list of potential candidates, consider conducting your first interview via the telephone with the goal of screening or pre-qualifying candidates. Unless you are filling a position that requires a person to work solely on projects, tasks and numbers, and never speak to your clients, a phone interview will give you an opportunity to experience the initial impression of how they verbally communicate. Compile four or five initial questions that will further qualify them as a candidate. If they pass with flying colors, you can establish the first in-person interview. If they fail to meet your expectations, you have only used up 10 minutes of your time rather than an hour in the office. During in-person interviews, be sure to use a variety of questions that not only help you better understand their background and skill set, but also delve into who they are as a person. Behavioral questions are specific, easy-to-apply examples of behaviors that demonstrate competency and proficiency levels. They serve as standards against which to compare the candidate s responses. Conduct at least two in-person interviews, and if appropriate make sure that all current team members have a chance to meet and sit down with the final candidates prior to extending an actual offer. Asking your final two or three candidates to take assessments will also help ensure suitability from a skill set and team chemistry perspective. Assessment Resources There are numerous assessment resources you can leverage to help you better understand your team members and dynamics. The following are a few you may consider: Myers Briggs: A psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological ڦڦ preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. Kolbe: Uses four Action Modes to measure an individual s creative instincts and ڦڦ problem-solving style to describe the natural tendencies for how you do what you do. Financial DNA: Leveraging their Business DNA solution, business leaders and ڦڦ their teams can navigate the human differences in their business by discovering and aligning the different communication styles, behaviors and solution preferences of their diverse employees. DISC: Uses four dimensions Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness and ڦڦ Compliance to measure observable behavior and emotions to describe the natural tendencies for how you do what you do. 2 In-Person Interview 1 3 In-Person Interview 2 4 Team Interviews 5 Assessments 6 Make Offer 7 Onboarding 1

2 Salesperson If you are seeking a salesperson or looking to bring on a partner, the initial process may be a little different than searching for a support team member. Conducting due diligence prior to forming a partnership is vital to its ultimate success. Successful partnerships work because they are well planned and designed. It is very important for partners to be able to clearly and definitively answer a key question: Why do you need the other person to succeed or win more business? For some, saying, I need another person is difficult; for some in this business, it is impossible. Partnerships are like marriages. You want to be sure to do a lot of dating before you jump into a long-term commitment, and keep in mind that it s a good idea to consider a prenuptial agreement before you commit (just in case things don t work out). Asking the Right Questions Let s look at the interview from a high level. You have 30 to 60 minutes to draw conclusions about whether the candidate is right for the role without actually watching them perform. Therefore, asking the right questions is critical. You cannot conduct and assess an interview based on the candidate s handshake and interpersonal skills alone. You need to go back to the job descriptions and competencies you identified as critical to the role and gauge how the candidate measures against them. THE COST OF A BAD HIRE 1 $25, % of firms say that a single bad hire cost them more than $25,000. $50, % of firms say that a single bad hire cost them more than $50,000. Tip: Consider asking each candidate interviewing for a specific role the same set of questions so that you can evaluate them on a consistent basis. A bad hire can significantly affect your bottom line and be an emotional drag on the culture of your firm. Why is this important? According to CareerBuilder, more than two-thirds of employers said they were affected by a bad hire in the past year (2011); this percentage is on par with % of companies that made a bad hire estimate that it cost them more than $25,000 and one in four said it cost them more than $50, COMMON EFFECTS OF A BAD HIRE 1 Percent of companies that say bad hires result in the following negative outcomes Less productivity 41% Lost time to recruit and train another worker 40% Cost to recruit and train another worker 37% Employee morale negatively affected 36% Negative impact on client solutions 22% Legal issues 9% 1 CareerBuilder, Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com 2

3 Building High-Performing Teams: Build There are a number of competencies you may consider addressing during the interview process. This will help you determine cultural fit with your team. Values and beliefs. These questions will help you delve into the candidate s true ڦڦ motivators and why they do what they do. You should ask about their values and principles in the industry, in business and in life. Clientele. If you are bringing on an advisor with an existing book of business, you ڦڦ want to make sure that their clientele fits with yours. Questions concerning the number of clients, the average size of relationships and how they define their ideal client relationship will help you gain a better understanding of whether the client bases will jell. If you are hiring a support person, asking questions about how they would handle certain client situations will also help you identify if they are the right person for the role. Strengths and challenges. This, of course, is more obvious and a standard part of ڦڦ any interviewing process. Remember, you want to find people who have different strengths than yours; they need to complement you. Avoid bringing on people with the same talents as your own. Understanding their challenges will also help identify if they are right for your business and the job at hand. Career goals. Questions regarding the candidate s short- and long-term career ڦڦ goals will help you gain insight into their future plans and whether they are likely to be a short-timer or an extremely loyal long-term associate. Investment style and beliefs. When bringing on another advisor with an existing ڦڦ client base, you want to ask questions that allow you to get to their investment style. Typically, you are looking for similarities here. You want a partner to have the same basic philosophy about the markets and investing. Culture fit. When considering bringing on another advisor, you need to consider ڦڦ their relationship with other staff members or strategic partners. Will they work well within your existing team? You are not only trying to find the right talent for the role, but also an individual who will fit into the culture that you have created within the business. By understanding their work preferences, you can help avoid misunderstandings and unmet expectations. Passions and interests. Understanding what a person enjoys outside of work ڦڦ hours will help uncover commonalities among existing team members and, if they are the right person for your business, can help set the stage for some customized appreciation later on. (For example, if they have a passion for fishing or wine, you can give them something you know they will appreciate during bonus seasons or when they go above and beyond in the workplace.) Behavioral Interviewing The most insightful interviews assess past performance to develop an understanding of how the individual will perform in the future. Behavioral interviewing is a method of questioning that provokes the candidate to answer with a story to describe how they approached a situation in the past. 2 Instead of asking, How are your time management 2 The Pros and Cons of Behavioral Interviewing. CareerBuilder

4 skills? a question to which the interviewee is likely to have a canned or assuring response ask, Tell me about a specific time when you were feeling overwhelmed at work. How did you prioritize? Here, you are asking the candidate to provide evidence for how he or she has behaved in the past. Does his or her past behavior sound like it would yield success in the role you have open on your team? If the candidate does not have a specific, well-defined answer, it is possible that he or she has not had the experience performing in a fast-paced, dynamic, work environment. Your Role in the Interview Note: Be sure to check with your HR expert on understanding the ever-changing questions that can and cannot be asked during the interview process. EVALUATE THE CANDIDATE Besides asking the questions, your role is to evaluate the potential new hire objectively and consistently. Your focus should be on assessing and evaluating rather than looking for ways to drive the conversation forward. As a result, have your list of questions prepared. A beneficial technique that many organizations use is to create an interview guide that provides structure around the interview. Tip: List the key competencies or items that are critical to the position. List two or three related behavioral questions beneath the competencies and leave room so you can take detailed notes. After the interview is over and the candidate has left, take 15 minutes to complete your notes and re-read those you took in the interview. Compare your notes with other members of the firm who may have interviewed the candidate and assess the individual. This is a great way to provide consistency around interviewing, especially if you have multiple interviews scheduled across multiple days. The guide enables you to cover all of the points you intended to and provides a strong record to refer back to during the decision-making process. The candidates are doing their best to sell themselves to you you should be promoting your business as well. The interactions that you have with a candidate in the interview process play a big factor in whether they will accept the position you offer them. Over half of the employers who recruited new employees in the last year reported that a candidate rejected their offer. The rejection could have been due to many factors, but 15% of employees report having a worse opinion of the employer after they were contacted for the interview. 3 Even if you do not intend to hire the person in the chair across from you or on the other side of the phone, this candidate is a potential client or advocate of your business. Here are some reasons why your firm should be at its best when interviewing clients: 32% of job seekers indicate they are less likely to purchase a product from a company that did not get back to them in ڦڦ regards to their application. family. 75% of job seekers said they would talk about a bad recruiting experience with friends and ڦڦ media. 17% of job seekers say they would post something about the negative experience on social ڦڦ it. 3 6% of job seekers said they would blog about ڦڦ The bottom line is you should be conducting your interviews in a manner similar to how you conduct your meetings with prospects. You will find that the best interview candidates (those who are serious about the position and excited about the work) are also the candidates who are most likely to be interviewing you as an employer. 3 CareerBuilder, Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com 4

5 Building High-Performing Teams: Build EFFECTIVE INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES AND BEST PRACTICES Pre-Interview prepare. Prepare, prepare, ڦڦ role. Review the job description and specific job responsibilities that you created for this new ڦڦ Create your list of questions and what you want to accomplish in the interview; choose questions that will ڦڦ provide insight into their talents for the open position, but also ask behavioral questions that will provide insight about who they are on a personal level. need. Choose from the question bank provided based on your defined ڦڦ Role dependent some advisors like to provide candidates with some thought-provoking questions prior to the ڦڦ interview, and then ask additional questions during the interview to get their gut reactions to see how they would handle a specific job. Interview Depending on the role for which you are hiring, the first interview is often best conducted via the phone. If the ڦڦ candidate is not strong on the phone, then you will be able to save time through a quick initial screening. apples-to- Take good notes throughout each interview so that you can have the information to perform an ڦڦ apples comparison as you narrow down your field of candidates. Have key team members participate in interviewing any potential candidates to ensure buy-in from all before ڦڦ making an offer. Post-Interview Use an assessment resource prior to making the final offer, such as DISC or Kolbe. This allows an unbiased ڦڦ tool to help confirm that the candidate has both the right skill set for the job and the right chemistry for your existing team. process. Be consistent in your hiring process and do not rush the ڦڦ Tip: There are questions that are considered legally inappropriate to ask. Hiring decisions should not be based on race, sex, marital and family status, pregnancy, age, handicap, national origin, religion, arrest record, association with present employees, citizenship, sexual orientation, commuting distance or political affiliation. QUESTION BANK: SUPPORT STAFF/SALESPERSON Establishing Comfort water? Would you like some coffee or a glass of ڦڦ office? How was your commute to the ڦڦ live? Where do you ڦڦ 5

6 QUESTION BANK: SUPPORT STAFF/SALESPERSON Industry/Company Knowledge industry? What do you think about the current state of the financial services ڦڦ industry? What important trends do you see in our ڦڦ industry? How do you stay up-to-date on industry knowledge/changes in our ڦڦ why. Do you have a passion for this industry? Describe ڦڦ company? What do you know about our company? What is your overall opinion of our ڦڦ competition? What do you feel is our biggest advantage over our ڦڦ Problem Solving done. Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job ڦڦ decision. Give me an example of a time when you had to make a split-second ڦڦ Give me an example of a time when you had to come up with a solution to a problem that you did not ڦڦ fully understand. year. Tell me about a difficult decision that you ve made in the last ڦڦ goal. Describe a situation where you failed to reach a ڦڦ unclear? How did you handle a recent situation where the direction from your superior(s) was ڦڦ People Skills Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things ڦڦ your way. compromise. Describe a situation in which you had to arrive at a compromise or guide others to a ڦڦ others. Give me an example of a time when you motivated ڦڦ Give an example of when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with. Why was this ڦڦ person difficult? How did you handle that person? teamwork? What have you done in the past to contribute toward creating an environment centered on ڦڦ Task/Project Management job. Tell me about a time when, without being asked, you took it upon yourself to accomplish a task on the ڦڦ Tell of some situations in which you have had to adjust quickly to changes over which you had no control. What ڦڦ was the impact of the change on you? Describe a situation that required a number of things to be done at the same time. How did you handle it? What ڦڦ was the result? day? How do you plan your week? How do you plan your ڦڦ it? Have you ever worked in a place where it seemed to be just one crisis after another? How did you handle ڦڦ How did you feel? Do you consider yourself a multi-tasker? (Lots of different areas; prioritization; organization; drop one ball and run ڦڦ with another.) Or, do you prefer to take one thing at a time through to completion? Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com 6

7 Building High-Performing Teams: Build QUESTION BANK: SUPPORT STAFF/SALESPERSON Detail Orientation problem. Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a ڦڦ agree. Give me a specific example of a time when you had to conform to a policy with which you did not ڦڦ Describe a situation in which you found that your results were not up to your professor s or supervisor s ڦڦ expectations. What happened? What action did you take? Recall a time when you were assigned what you considered to be a complex project. Specifically, what steps did ڦڦ you take to prepare for and finish the project? Were you happy with the outcome? What one step would you have done differently if given the chance? organization. Do you consider yourself to be organized? Give examples of ڦڦ Do you consider yourself to be detail-oriented or a big picture visionary? Give an example of your attention ڦڦ to detail. Regarding the Position Available applying? What do you know about the position for which you are ڦڦ you? Based on my description of the opportunity here, what about the position excites ڦڦ here? Do you have any concerns about the position ڦڦ position? What would you say are the three main aspects (or priorities) of this ڦڦ position? Why do think you re right for the ڦڦ success? How quickly do you feel you can contribute to this organization s ڦڦ think? Your resume suggests that you may be overqualified for this position. What do you ڦڦ Financial expectations: What kind of salary/total compensation do you expect? (What was your previous base ڦڦ salary? Were there bonuses? Commissions? Benefits?) moment? What career options do you have at this ڦڦ Current/Previous Job/Career Position responsibilities? What are/were your ڦڦ job? What features do/did you like best about your current position/previous ڦڦ least? What do/did you like ڦڦ day. Describe a typical ڦڦ know? How are/were you measured? Do/did you do a good job? How do you ڦڦ best? What steps do you take to ensure that you are doing your ڦڦ accomplishment? What has been your biggest ڦڦ position? What is/was the most stressful factor in your current/previous ڦڦ supervisor? What do/did you like most and least about your current/previous ڦڦ you? What would your current/previous supervisor say about ڦڦ 7

8 QUESTION BANK: SUPPORT STAFF/SALESPERSON How and with what frequency do/did you communicate with your current/previous supervisor? What ڦڦ communication style is most comfortable for you? What were the high points and low points of your last performance review? In your opinion, was this a ڦڦ fair evaluation? peers? How would you rank yourself amongst your ڦڦ past? What titles and responsibilities have you held in the ڦڦ Leadership leader? Do you consider yourself to be a ڦڦ why? Who do you consider as a strong leader or mentor in your life and ڦڦ example. How would you characterize your leadership style? Please provide an ڦڦ Technology background? What is your technological ڦڦ What programs are you comfortable using? (Be sure to ask about the software programs that your ڦڦ company uses.) improve? Did you visit our website prior to this interview? If yes, what did you learn? What would you ڦڦ event? Do you prefer to teach yourself how to use a new program or attend a training ڦڦ improvement? Do you believe that you fully use the technology that you know or is there room for ڦڦ General yourself? What are you currently doing to improve ڦڦ be? If you had to describe yourself with just three words, what would they ڦڦ be? Now, if you had to choose just one of those words, which would it ڦڦ you? What motivates ڦڦ success? How do you define ڦڦ goals? What are your short-term and long-term career/personal ڦڦ strengths/weaknesses? What are your ڦڦ style? What is your learning style? Communication ڦڦ yourself? What are you doing now to attain a goal that you have set for ڦڦ failure? What regrets, if any, do you have? A failure? What did you learn from that ڦڦ differently? If you could start your career over again, what would you do ڦڦ Depending on the Initial Answers to the Above Questions, Secondary Interview Questions Might Include with? How did you deal ڦڦ outcome? What was the ڦڦ Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com 8

9 Building High-Performing Teams: Build QUESTION BANK: SUPPORT STAFF/SALESPERSON feel? How did it make you ڦڦ do? What did you say or ڦڦ examples? What are some ڦڦ more Tell me ڦڦ Inappropriate Topics Age ڦڦ Marital circumstance ڦڦ Disabilities ڦڦ Sex and physical appearance ڦڦ Citizenship or national origin ڦڦ Religion ڦڦ You can ask about convictions but not arrests ڦڦ Note: These questions have not been approved by any human resources professional. Please check with your appropriate resources for current rules and regulations. Visit the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at for more information. Initial Partner Viability Topics for Discussion Conducting due diligence prior to forming a partnership is vital to your ultimate success. Many partnerships fail because they were ill designed and not well thought through prior to forming. It is very important for partners to clearly and definitively answer a key question that should be asked in all partnership viability discussions: Why do you need the other person to succeed or win more business? For some, saying, I need another person is difficult; for some in this business, it is impossible. Partnerships are like marriages. You want to be sure that you do a lot of dating before you jump into a long-term commitment. Keep in mind that it s a good idea to consider a prenuptial or pre-partnering agreement before you commit (just in case things don t work out). In this resource, you will find some initial discussion topics for forming a partnership or a strategic alliance with another professional. BEST PRACTICES Set up a lunch meeting with your candidate. During the first encounter, you want to establish that trust, honesty and open communication are as important to your potential partners as they are to you. You want to make this initial personal connection and get to know them by uncovering their interests and passions. You also want to begin to learn about their current practice, clients, process, philosophy and style, along with current personal and business strengths and challenges. Below are some suggested topics of conversation during this fact-finding mission. Values. This is one area where you are looking for similarities. The success of your practice is founded on your basic ڦڦ beliefs, values, and principles of your business, client relationships and family. It is important that the individual you partner with shares your beliefs and values. This will help build a strong foundation and increase your chance of success. 9

10 Clientele. Defining and understanding your ideal client relationship is a key ڦڦ ingredient to your success, regardless of your style of business. Therefore, if you are considering partnering with someone with an existing book of business, it is important to understand their niche, their target audience and their current clients. It is important to ask yourself, Would I enjoy working with this type of client and would my potential colleagues enjoy working with my specific clients? Strengths and challenges. In order to leverage time and talent and help ensure ڦڦ that one plus one equals more than two, you need to search for a partner who has different strengths than you. If your talents reside in new client acquisition (rainmaking), then you should consider aligning yourself with someone who enjoys the relationship management aspects of the business. By joining forces with others who bring different strengths, you can build true synergy. A team must address all aspects of the business. If in going through the first meeting you discover that you and this advisor have identical strengths and/or challenges, then partnering may not be the best option to take your businesses to the next level of success. Current and future plan. It is important to gain insight into your potential partner s ڦڦ current personal life, business plan and future objectives. Asking questions about their vision, mission, goals, strategies, how they spend their day, celebrate successes and evaluate their progress towards their goals are all important as you consider your future partnership. Business succession is often a critical part of these conversations. Processes and wealth management style. Evaluate processes and wealth ڦڦ management style compared to your own. You may have learned a little about their planning process in the section above, so here you can ask questions about their investment or wealth management process, as well as their client acquisition, client development and operational processes. Do they have a defined value proposition and sales process? You want to learn about their selling process and how they tell their story to prospects and clients. Do they have an organized and systematized service model? If so, include questions around their client communication and appreciation plan. People. Do they currently have a team? Are they internal or external or a ڦڦ combination of both? What are their strengths and weaknesses? In addition, discuss any thoughts on how they would fit into the newly expanded team. Passions and interests. Take the time to get to know them on a personal level ڦڦ and uncover their true passions and interests. Ask about their hobbies, pursuits outside of work and their family. You want to uncover their personal life motivators. Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com 10

11 Building High-Performing Teams: Build Assessing Partnership Viability Below is a list of questions that you can use in your discussions with potential partners who have existing clientele. Here is what we suggest you consider doing to get started: Edit the list to fit your needs and style. When doing so, consider your overall business and personal goals and what ڦڦ you need to achieve those goals. Once you have identified the important questions that you want answered, answer them for yourself before meeting ڦڦ with anyone. questions, Provide the questionnaire to the person you are considering for partnership and ask them to review the ڦڦ adding their own as they see fit. These will help facilitate your future discussions. Get together for lunch and share your thoughts and responses. Your respective answers to the compatibility ڦڦ questionnaire will help you determine the potential viability of joining forces. Each of you should complete some objective, third-party assessments, such as DISC or Kolbe, to provide ڦڦ additional insight. COMPATIBILITY QUESTION BANK Values and Beliefs life? What are your basic beliefs, values and principles for your industry, business and ڦڦ Clientele like? Do you serve a specific target market or niche market? What does that market look ڦڦ relationship? How do you define your ideal client ڦڦ relationships? Do you require a minimum account balance for your client ڦڦ relationships/households? What is the average size of your client ڦڦ segment? How many clients/households do you have in each ڦڦ plan? Do you have a formalized service menu, model and ڦڦ practice? What tools do you use in your ڦڦ relationships? What is your philosophy on fees? How do you price your ڦڦ Strengths and Challenges strengths? What do you consider your ڦڦ least? What areas of the business do you like the ڦڦ most? What areas of the business do you enjoy the ڦڦ style? What is your leadership ڦڦ Marketing and Business Development client? What is your process for taking a lead from a prospect to a ڦڦ business? What is your referral strategy for building new ڦڦ influence? Do you have a process for working with centers of ڦڦ 11

12 COMPATIBILITY QUESTION BANK techniques? Do you use conceptual selling ڦڦ story? How do you tell your ڦڦ Do you have an ongoing fact-finding process that includes financial, professional and personal questions to ڦڦ deepen your existing client relationships? etc.) Do you use traditional marketing techniques, strategies and tools? (Ads, lists, newspaper articles, seminars, ڦڦ Investment Philosophy advice? Do you offer non-investment ڦڦ process? What is your investment/financial planning philosophy and ڦڦ combination)? What is you preferred style of business (transactional or commission-oriented, fee-based, or a ڦڦ they? Do you concentrate on specific products? What are ڦڦ What additional products and services are you looking to expose your clients to (that you are not ڦڦ currently offering)? Team team? Who else is on your current ڦڦ responsibilities? What are their ڦڦ strengths? What are their ڦڦ weaknesses? What are their ڦڦ Do you currently have any external partners who are important to your practice (e.g., CPA, attorney, banking ڦڦ partners, etc.)? Career Goals Do you have a one-year, five-year and ten-year vision or plan? Is your plan written? Does it include goals ڦڦ and activities? teaming? What are your reasons for ڦڦ succession? When do you want to retire? Do you have specific thoughts on business ڦڦ success? How do you define ڦڦ Outside Interests work? What are your hobbies, interests and passions outside of ڦڦ family. Tell me about your ڦڦ Summary The cost of hiring or partnering with the wrong individual goes beyond the financial element. It can result in a loss of productivity, disruption to other team members, damage to team morale and worse client relationships, among other consequences. It is important to take the time to thoroughly interview candidates, perform your due diligence and make the best hire for your firm. Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com 12

13 Building High-Performing Teams: Build About This Series Building High-Performing Teams, developed in collaboration with Paragon Resources, is a series of modules and resources designed to help you assess, design, build and lead your human capital resources to maximize your productivity and achieve your business vision. Assess Design Build Lead The series components are as follows: 1. Assess. The Assess guidebook focuses on helping advisors review their current team and explore the key considerations for expansion, including determining whether adding a new team member is warranted, and if so, giving you greater clarity regarding the role they would fill. 2. Design. The Design guidebook offers tips on making decisions about organizational structure, defining roles, crafting job descriptions, assessing current team members, and, if appropriate, beginning the hiring process. 3. Build. The Build guidebook provides guidance on developing and maximizing your team s human capital by presenting strategies for sourcing talent, onboarding and positioning the new team with clients. 4. Lead. The Lead guidebook presents tools you can use to enhance your management and leadership skills to increase the engagement and retention of staff, streamline business operations, manage performance and implement effective team communication. To access the full series, visit Veo>Practice Management>Resource Center>Human Capital Management or contact your Sales Representative. 13

14 About the Authors About Paragon Resources and Know No Bounds Paragon Resources and Know No Bounds are training and consulting firms providing proven practice management solutions exclusively to Investment Professionals. Whether an internal corporate business development department, product solutions provider or a practicing advisory team, our resources are designed to capitalize on people s talents and optimize productivity through efficient processes. This is the foundation of our People + Process = Performance methodology. Having a keen awareness of the true root cause of an investment advisory team s issues is vital to remaining competitive in this evolving industry. We provide a powerful and unique suite of diagnostic tools designed to: Identify the potential performance barriers that are hindering the ultimate success ڦڦ of an advisory team Facilitate key decisions that need to be made for the future growth of the practice ڦڦ Provide a roadmap for specific action ڦڦ By looking at three critical Performance Drivers PEOPLE, TEAM DYNAMICS and the BUSINESS MODEL our resources and services help advisory teams transcend their current success to attain their ultimate performance potential. Organizations increase their business, optimize their practices, and subsequently make an impact on their lives and those of their clients. For additional information, please visit our websites at or About TD Ameritrade Institutional At TD Ameritrade Institutional, we never forget that it s your business. We are here to support you in making it thrive. When you work with us, you will get the dedicated commitment of our people, access to a range of resources and a strategic relationship all designed to increase your potential and help you achieve your business vision. Our offering is part of what differentiates us. We deliver smart operational solutions, innovative technology, customized practice management and flexible investment solutions, all with one goal in mind impeccable service. We share your belief that being a fiduciary is one of the best ways to serve your clients. As steadfast advocates for independent advisors, we continually speak out to ensure that your needs and the needs of investors are always considered within the regulatory environment. We consistently place your needs at the foundation of our business decisions. You can count on TD Ameritrade Institutional to put you first, so you can do the same for your clients. When you choose to work with us, you ll see how deeply we are committed to your success. Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com 14

15 Important Information This material is designed for a financial professional audience, primarily registered investment advisors. This brochure is published by TD Ameritrade Institutional for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal or professional advice. TD Ameritrade Institutional disclaims any loss or liability that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, from the use or application of this publication. Third-party articles and information are obtained from sources deemed reliable; however, TD Ameritrade does not guarantee their accuracy or completeness and makes no warranties with respect to results to be obtained in reliance thereon. TD Ameritrade does not make recommendations or endorsements for any advisor that utilizes its brokerage or custodial services. TD Ameritrade does not monitor, and is not responsible for, communications between advisors and their clients. TD Ameritrade expressly disclaims any warranty or merchantability of fitness for a particular purpose, use or application and assumes no responsibility for any action the recipient may take (or fail to take) based on information contained in this guidebook. Neither this guidebook nor any recommendation made in it constitutes legal or regulatory advice. TD Ameritrade, Inc. and the aforementioned third-party companies are separate unaffiliated companies and are not responsible for each other s services or policies. All product and service names are property of their respective owners. TD Ameritrade, Paragon Resources and Know No Bounds are separate and unaffiliated, and are not responsible for each other s services or policies. Paragon Resources is a third-party provider in the TD Ameritrade Institutional Affinity Services Program. Access to Affinity Services Program vendors is provided solely as a service to financial advisors using the brokerage, execution and custody services of TD Ameritrade Institutional. These services are offered at a discount directly through the participating vendors. Participating vendors are independent and are not employees or agents of TD Ameritrade. TD Ameritrade does not guarantee nor are they responsible for the quality or accuracy of any vendor s product or service. In no instance should the listing of a vendor be construed as a recommendation or endorsement by TD Ameritrade. Furthermore, TD Ameritrade does not recommend or endorse any security described by any vendor. TD Ameritrade Institutional, Division of TD Ameritrade, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC/NFA. TD Ameritrade is a trademark jointly owned by TD Ameritrade IP Company, Inc. and The Toronto-Dominion Bank TD Ameritrade IP Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Interview Guides tdainstitutional.com TDAI BR XXXXX 12/12