Peita Diamantidis

The kitchen and cooking skills of the country’s top business leaders will be put on show at the annual OzHarvest CEO CookOff in Sydney on 7 March.

Sydney-based financial planning firm Caboodle Financial Services’ co-founder, Peita Diamantidis, will be donning an apron and putting on oven mitts to team up with Australia’s top chefs to raise money for leading food rescue charity, OzHarvest.

In its fifth year, the event brings together CEOs and Managing Directors from some of Australia’s top companies from all industries. Business leaders will be challenged on their fundraising and culinary skills which will benefit some of the country’s most vulnerable community members, while at the same time raising awareness about the issues of food security, homelessness and food waste.

130 business leaders and 40 high profile chefs took part in last year’s CEO CookOff. Since the CEO CookOff began in 2012, it has raised more than $4 million for charity.

CEOs are teamed with acclaimed chefs including Matt Moran, Guillaume Brahimi and Frank Camorra to prepare a three course meal for approximately 1,300 Australian homeless and disadvantaged people.
According to Peita Diamantidis, author of Finance Action Hero: Basic Training and managing director of Caboodle Financial Services, financial advisers are in a unique position to help raise awareness of causes like OzHarvest as they link directly to day to day attitudes and behaviours of Australians when it comes to money.
“As part of my research into the Finance Action Hero book series, I discovered how much food each of us waste, and was initially focused on reducing the amount we throw away to save each of us money. However OzHarvest helped me realise I was thinking too small.” she said.

“What about all the food wasted by my favourite restaurants, and by all the major supermarket chains? That is what I love about OzHarvest and that is what drove me to participate in this year’s CEO Cookoff.”

CEOs, through their sponsors, generate much needed funds for OzHarvest to continue its mission to turn surplus food into hearty and healthy meals for vulnerable Australians. The organisation currently has 30 vans which deliver nutritious rescued food to more than 800 charities in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle and Perth.

The 2016 CEO CookOff will be held in Sydney on Monday 7 March and OzHarvest CEO and Founder, Ronni Kahn, says she is hopeful that participants will top last year’s sterling fundraising effort.

“This event brings out the best in our business leaders who stand side by side with industry colleagues and competitors and some of the best chefs in the country, united in their efforts to really make a difference to the lives of not just their 1,300 hungry guests on the night of the CEO CookOff, but the thousands of people that OzHarvest helps every year,” Kahn said.

The opportunity to stand side by side with some of the CEOs of Australia’s largest institutions has also appealed to Peita’s competitive nature.

“Small business is a major driving force in the financial services industry, and I’d love to remind the big financial institutions of that by giving their CEOs a run for their money. I know that if financial advice practices came together behind a cause we would effect wonderful change.“

Donations can be made here. Details on the offer Peita is making to those that make signficant contributions can be found at www.bit.ly/caboodleozharvest

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Peita Diamantidis

Leading financial planning firm Caboodle Financial Services has launched the Caboodle Masters Network – an innovative and compelling succession solution designed to maximise the price principals can achieve for their business while removing the stress and uncertainty typically involved in a sales transaction.

The Caboodle Masters Network was developed by financial planner Peita Diamantidis and business coach Warwick Hearne in response to growing demand from advisers for a succession plan that recognises the full value of their practice; allows principals to continue writing new business or transition out at their own pace; and ensures clients receive ongoing service and advice.

By joining the Caboodle Masters Network, principals can avoid the pain and disruption often associated with the sale of a business while possibly doubling the price they would receive for their business if they were to sell in the current market, according to Hearne.

“For the majority of financial planners, succession is a major issue. Without a viable exit strategy, advisers, their families, and their clients are exposed,” he said.

“This much-needed solution enables advisers to plan and manage their succession. For principals who want to continue writing new business, it can deliver business freedom by assisting with the compliance and administration burden so they can spend more time in front of new clients or on personal pursuits, as they choose.”

With the Caboodle Masters Network, Caboodle Financial Services will acquire a practice’s book of business, assume responsibility for servicing clients and pay the principal 50 per cent of recurring revenue for a minimum of 10 years, effectively underwriting the portfolio value from the outset.

Advisers can continue winning new clients leveraging Caboodle’s infrastructure, technology, marketing automation and back-office support, or they can transition to retirement at a pace they choose.

Those who continue writing new business have an opportunity to significantly increase the value they receive for their practice by extending the 10 year remuneration period by the period for which they are actively writing new business. Financial arrangements and payments are adminstered by Suncorp-owned dealer group Guardian Advice, which licenses Caboodle Financial Services.

According to practice management expert Graham Peatey, who recently joined Caboodle Financial Services, the new Caboodle Masters Network offer is an Australian-first with the power to end the succession nightmare for many advisers.

“In the 20 years I’ve worked in financial services distribution, I’ve never seen a succession planning solution this compelling which is the main reason why I joined the Caboodle team,” Peatey said.

“It addresses the key challenges of succession because from the outset the adviser knows how and what they will be paid for their business. They also have the opportunity to positively impact the valuation.”

The Caboodle Masters Network complements the highly successful Caboodle Passive Client Offer, which was originally launched in 2008.

Under the Caboodle Passive Client Offer, Caboodle Financial Services will acquire a practice’s lower value passive clients and pay the principal 50 per cent of recurring revenue on that book of business for 10 years. Principals continue to service their active clients.

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Peita Diamantidis

A leading financial planning firm has joined the Australian government in the fight to boost the financial literacy of Australians, as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission prepares to release the government’s National Financial Literacy Strategy for 2014-17.

Sydney-based financial planning firm Caboodle Financial Services has developed a range of educational tools which will be launched on May 1 and features a new book called Finance Action Hero: Basic Training

The book forms part of the Zaptitude range of consumer products, which includes seminars and coaching clinics, smart phone apps, webcasts and a support group made up of financial planners, bloggers and ordinary people called the Zaptitude Tribe.

According to Peita Diamantidis, author of Finance Action Hero: Basic Training and managing director of Caboodle Financial Services, financial advisers are in a unique position to help raise the financial knowledge and skills of Australians, and positively influence their attitudes and behaviour when it comes to money.

“So many people we encounter as advisers work hard and earn good money yet they have nothing to show for it,” she said.

“They need to be compelled, prodded, zapped and stirred into action but the minute they decide to try and take control of their finances, they’re overwhelmed by all the information out there. They know they should do something but like a deer in headlights, they’re mesmerized by the oncoming catastrophe. They simply don’t know where to start.”

The Zaptitude range is one small part of the solution, Diamantidis said, urging other advisers to get involved with financial literacy initiatives including the national program, which is set to be unveiled imminently.

In 2013, ASIC undertook an extensive public consultation process to review the existing financial literacy strategy which was set in 2011. A new and updated strategy is currently in draft form and is expected to be released soon.

“Zaptitude is the ability or knack to sort out one’s money stuff and it is the cure for financial paralysis, which more than 50 per cent of Australian adults suffer from according to our proprietary research,” Diamantidis said.

The firm’s research also found two thirds of Australians don’t understand the messages being communicated by the financial services industry.

Diamantidis said her book was a training manual not another personal finance title focused on investing.

“Financial literacy and Zaptitude is about helping people get their financial house in order and meeting people where they are at,” she said. “We want to provide full encouragement and inspiration to people and keep pushing them along.”

Finance Action Hero will be available at selected retailers and online at Amazon, iTunes and www.zaptitude.me .

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