Independence
A non-compete and a non-solicitation are different promises, enforced differently. Most disputes turn on a distinction people learn too late.
A non-compete says you will not do this work, in some area, for some period. A non-solicitation says you will not approach particular people — clients, colleagues, or both.
They are enforced very differently. Non-competes in employment have come under increasing scrutiny and several states restrict or refuse to enforce them. Non-solicits, being narrower, are more often upheld.
Between soliciting a client and accepting one who came to you.
Announcing that you have moved is generally treated differently from urging someone to follow. But the line is drawn by the wording you signed and the law where you are, and it moves.
Which is why the record matters: who contacted whom, when, and through what channel. Advisors who keep that straight rarely have a problem. Advisors who cannot reconstruct it are in a weaker position regardless of the truth.
It varies enough by state that general guidance is close to useless. The same clause can be unenforceable in one jurisdiction and routine in another, and the relevant state is not always the obvious one.
Duration, geography, and what counts as solicitation are all negotiable, and most people never try. The narrowest version worth agreeing to covers clients you actually served, for a defined period, and says nothing about accepting unsolicited approaches.
Read it. Then read what else you signed — obligations of this kind hide in deferred compensation plans and partnership agreements as often as in the employment contract.
Then get advice specific to your agreement and your state. This is the point of the article: the answer depends on documents only you have, and a general answer is not one.
Questions this did not answer? Ask them directly — that is what the twenty minutes is for.
Schedule a call to see for yourself