Working as a Financial Adviser

I was so to speak in the belly of the beast. A place where the neo-liberal constitution was on full display every single day; an investment firm. There, during my training and short tenure as a financial adviser I was exposed to a culture of individualism, a reverence of property rights, a mindset of profit maximization, and a tendency to cut costs. To summarize my entire life was to be oriented around a market logic.

The best part and worst part of being a financial adviser is that one works essentially for themselves. Set your own schedule, work from home, work from a coffee shop, prospect whoever you want, it doesn't matter, the name of the game is getting clients to invest money with the firm by selling life insurance, retirement plans, annuities etc… So each adviser was encouraged to use their natural markets. Additionally, until one proved themselves they were not given a salary only commissions on their clients. Each adviser for themselves sink or swim, each being a highly decentralized individual node that could use any advantage at their disposal to close the deal. In this way everyone worked for the firm but to succeed they had to first work for themselves.

The great motivator for most of us was the immense amount of money that the industry had to offer. After all, when someone started a retirement fund it was often for life with monthly contributions that would be commissioned to the adviser as the client continued to add to their fund. Rack up enough of those and one would have an ever growing passive income. The vice president of my branch once said that she loved her job because she helped people reach their financial goals but, that it also allowed her to maintain a certain life style (owning horses, houses, traveling etc…). It was evident that the carrot being held in front of all of us was the opportunity to private property (regardless of form). Without private property no one would be willing to call the death of the baby boomer generation “the single greatest opportunity” (it being the greatest generational transfer of wealth in the history of the US).

There was also an emphasis on profit maximization and costing cutting which go hand in hand. As advisers in training we had to pay for all our course material and testing fees. If we finished the program and got all the licenses the firm would pay for some of the tests. Emphasis on some. This played a double role in cutting costs and maximizing profits. First, they would cut costs by putting the burden of becoming credentialed on the candidate while having them prospect clients for them under the guise of training. Part of the training was already showing that you could bring profit in. To become an adviser one had a quota to make in the first six months where they were unpaid, living off commissions they managed to prospect (hyper individualism and competition). If one failed they were not hired as an adviser. Leaving them with all of the cost, while the firm had to pay essentially nothing while getting labor from the greenhorn.

To put it simply, working as a financial adviser requires one to orient their entire lives around the market. Again, the vice president of my branch exemplified this perfectly. When giving us advice as to how to find clients she shared with us a time when she was going to dinner to meet with a date. Which she used as an opportunity to gain a client. She was always on the clock, always maximizing her profit, and expanding her individual brand. She didn't care about a human connection, or think about life outside of her capitalist role! Even on a date she was active and defined by it. If I wanted to be successful like her I should heed her advice and let the market permeate my entire life. Allowing the logic of private accumulation to set my world view. If a person had money and I was not helping them “invest it” I was doing not only a disservice to myself but an even greater affront to the disenfranchised investor. Thus, increasing the money in the firm’s retirement accounts and my own bank account were one in the same. Seen as service to my self and humanity. Neo-liberalism in a nutshell.

Bonus:

The neo-liberal system we have now is a system best described as a war of all against all. To create profit one most take it from another because if they do not they will be left themselves with none. The very logic of profit as broken down by Marx is one where the workers relationship to money is C M C. Where the worker becomes a commodity by their labor in exchange for money to then buy commodities needed to live. The capitalist has a different relationship which is M C M1. The worker for every hour of work debases the value of their own labor because the capitalist’s profit is being made as a result of imbued labor. For example, if a person is paid 1 unit to make a purse, then the purse must be sold for at least 1.1 units. Meaning that every time the workers produces a purse and then buys one they are negative .1 units. Over the long-term and applied to all commodities this impoverishes the worker. In the neo-liberal logic there is no one to turn to. Rather no one is even needed. To live in capitalism means continuing as a worker or finding a way to acquire capital in order to commodify and exploit others for profit. A war of all against all.