How to use your network to land clients as a newbie and stand out in a fiercely competitive field, according to 6 up-and-coming financial advisers

• Business Insider recently profiled six young financial advisers who have grown their practices early on in their careers at Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch - among the largest US wealth managers.
• In interviews, we asked: what advice do you give to young advisers, especially ones who are struggling?
• "Remember that this is very much a career, and should never be thought of as a stepping stone," one adviser said he often reminds newcomers to the industry. "Clients can tell if your heart's in it."
• Visit BI Prime for more wealth management stories.

Getting off the ground as a new financial adviser, especially when you're not working on a team, can be challenging.

Building up a client base and gathering assets is a long-term process, and traditional wealth managers are trying to ease newcomers into the mix with new training and new transition policies between junior and senior advisers.

Business Insider recently profiled six rising-star financial advisers who have grown their client bases early on in their careers at some of the largest wealth management firms.

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In interviews, we asked advisers at Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch: what advice do you give to young advisers, especially ones who are struggling with growing their own business and gathering assets?

They described strategies they honed during their early days as adviser trainees, including developing unique areas of expertise that set them apart from the pack and seeking out advice from more senior financial advisers.

"This business is very unique in that when you step outside the walls of it, it's kind of hard to relate to other people who aren't doing what we're doing," Katie Thompson, an adviser and managing partner at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in New Mexico, told us. "So having a strong network in that, I think, is really important."

Here is some advice that our rising stars of financial advice told us they give to financial advisers who are trying to succeed in the field.