By Carmine Corino, ChFC®, AIF®, CFP®
Let’s be real. If you’re a financial advisor working inside a traditional insurance firm, you already know what this feels like.
You’re doing the work – building client relationships, managing assets, charging planning fees, and holding yourself to a fiduciary standard. You’re showing up every day trying to do what’s right for your clients.
And then your firm quietly makes another change.
New quotas. New “core product” pushes. New compliance twists that just happen to make it harder to do fee-based planning.
They don’t ask you if it aligns with your philosophy. They don’t tell you how to explain it to clients. They just move the goalposts – again.
My Breaking Point Came in 2019
I spent 17 years at one of those firms. I won’t name names – you can probably guess – but like many of you, I tried to make it work. I cared about my clients. I loved the work. I believed I could do the right thing from within the system. Then in 2019, they quadrupled product requirements. And in a single policy update, they tried to turn me from a fiduciary financial advisor into a captive insurance agent.
That was my enough.
I walked away. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to build at the time – but I knew what I couldn’t continue to accept.
Fast-Forward to Today: They’re Doing It Again
This week, I heard from multiple advisors still at that firm. The story was all too familiar:
- More pressure to sell “core” products
- Less flexibility to use planning tools and technology
- Even tighter constraints on fee-based work
- Moving comp targets with little warning
It’s the same playbook. Different year.
And let’s be honest: it’s demoralizing.
You do all the right things. You get licensed. You earn your CFP®. You charge planning fees, manage portfolios, and prioritize the client’s interest – only to be told that actually, the most important thing is selling more permanent life insurance or pushing proprietary funds.
What Happens When Your Ethics Clash with Your Employment?
This is where it gets real for many advisors. You reach a point where your internal compass starts to spin. Where what your firm requires no longer aligns with who you are – or how you believe clients should be served.
And that misalignment creates friction. Emotional. Professional. Ethical. Sometimes even physical.
You start dreading compliance calls. You hesitate to give clients advice you know is right because it’ll throw your comp off. You hide your true beliefs just to stay in the good graces of leadership.
Sound familiar?
You’re Not Weak for Wanting Out
Let’s just say it plainly: Wanting to serve your clients better is not a weakness. It’s not “being soft.” It’s not being ungrateful.
It’s being a professional.
If your firm punishes you for that – if they penalize fiduciary behavior and reward aggressive sales tactics – that’s not your failing. That’s theirs.
What Real Independence Looks Like
When I left, I didn’t do it lightly. I had a family to support. Clients who relied on me. A reputation to protect.
But I also knew I couldn’t keep compromising.
So I built something better: Cornerstone Planning Group – a firm designed for people like us.
Here’s what we offer:
- True independence – no quotas, no proprietary products, no sales mandates
- Turnkey asset management – so you can advise, not babysit platforms
- Compliance handled for you – so you can focus on planning
- Business development support – from real humans, not “coaches” reading from scripts
- Dedicated service team – seasoned professionals who handle your back-office operations
- Ownership of your clients and your brand – you keep your firm name, your identity, your book
- Access to me directly – I sit down with every advisor we partner with, every quarter, to strategize and support
We’ve helped dozens of advisors walk away from misaligned institutions. Not because they were angry. But because they were ready.
When Is Your Enough?
If your firm just made another change that has you shaking your head… if your comp is tied to selling things you don’t believe in… if your best ideas get shut down because they don’t fit the company mold…
It might be time.
You don’t have to stay. And you’re not alone.
Click here if you’re sick of building your firm’s dreams, and not yours.
