Life on the Financial Services Expos and Expos the World of Financing, As Seen Through Their Eyes
At first glance, financial professionals like Dan Fusaro (Broker-Dealer Operations Director, TD Securities; Director, Analytics, Oppenheimer & Co., Inc.) are running highly efficient businesses, performing serious, highly detailed tasks, and using tools that can help them compete and thrive in a volatile financial environment. But that is far from the reality on the frontlines of today’s financial markets, where every day, professional financial services professionals spend several hours dealing with accounts, valuing assets, forecasting clients’ income and expenses, giving updates to clients, maintaining client relationships and documenting activity for regulatory reporting purposes.
Instead of focusing on maximising market returns, professional financial services professionals often spend nearly all of their time trying to sustain their business.
During one particularly exhausting day at a financial services expo in November, Dan felt relieved when he finally felt like he could breathe. Dan’s team of about 25 had spent the entire morning explaining to clients and other participants how to fulfil regulations like Dodd-Frank, trying to predict future economic events, and dealing with issues ranging from compliance to trading disputes. They also discussed business trends and took time to discuss financial products and their relationship to the broader financial markets. The team was tired from the night before, and Dan wondered if his performance would diminish as his team stayed late to work on unfinished work. After a challenging day, the team cheered when Dan started recognising the signs of tiredness during the day’s discussion with a client.
If Dan had been able to save up the time and energy he had spent running around in the financial services expo, he would have had more time for client interactions. His career would have been more fulfilling if he had been able to put some of the activities and tasks he performed each day into the proper context. Dan has spent most of his financial career trying to meet deadlines. He does not have time to get discouraged when his schedule is interrupted by one too many unexpected issues that keep coming up and force him to switch gears on the fly.
When Dan looks back at his career, with some days fuelled by the unlikely combination of CBD Gummies and some really strong locally sourced and brewed coffee, he knows that he could not have done any of his work without starting his day early and spending time at the end of his workday dealing with routine issues.
Although Dan had to endure many mistakes and failures along the way, he also realised that he could move forward when he spent the time that he spent at the expo managing things at the appropriate time, rather than trying to hit the broad financial goals that he thought he should be aiming for. It is often tempting to wish that professional financial services professionals could have more time to spend on specific tasks. But by spending time on the tasks that are most important just comes with the job, which in turn comes with the refuge of knowing that a pretty hefty pay-cheque is on its way.
