05/30/2026
Your client said yes. Signed everything. And you can still lose the deal.
Here's the setup. Someone's got retirement money sitting with a financial advisor who's charging them fees and leaving it exposed to the market. They decide to move it somewhere protected, so they come to you, you fill out the application to roll those funds into the new plan, and they sign.
Most agents stop right there. Paperwork's in, client's happy, done, right? Wrong. Because that money is still sitting in the old account. And the only person who can release it⦠is the advisor they're leaving.
That's the part nobody warns you about. The second the transfer request hits that advisor's desk, he doesn't tap out. He fights to keep the money, and he leans on the one thing he's got that you don't: 20, 30, 40 years with this client. "We're practically family." "I can do that for you too."
And the client who didn't see it coming? Folds.
So I don't wait for it. I anticipate it. Before their advisor ever picks up the phone, I prep my client on exactly what they're about to hear, word for word. I say it before he/she gets the chance to. Because whoever says it first wins. The moment you call the objection out loud, you stop sounding like the salesman and start sounding like the consultant, the one telling them what to watch for.
By the time their advisor runs his play, my client's already heard it from me. It lands flat.
There are two closes in every rollover. Getting the yes is one. Getting the money to actually move is the other. Most agents only ever trained for the first, and that's exactly where they lose the deal.