Change is the new normal for financial advisers

From

Financial Advice is not going through some changes; constant change is the new normal.  Whatever regulatory stuff you are going through now in your particular jurisdiction will not be an end to it.  It will be ongoing.  More importantly though, regulatory change is not the BIG change which will become the constant challenge. Engaging consumers and turning

continue reading
08 Dec 2020

0 comments

Who says you can’t teach old dogs new tricks?

From

Old folk don’t take on new technology and new ideas, right? You just can’t teach them. Or is that “us”? Well that theory is getting blown away in a pandemic-like-way… There has been a continuous lament for years about the ageing of the financial advisory business and it is certainly true when you look back

continue reading
27 Nov 2020

0 comments

Maybe this is an opportunity: Picking a good financial adviser is harder than ever for consumers

From

Choosing a good financial adviser has always been a bit of a leap of faith for consumers I guess, but picking one today is harder than ever. With the tendency to use search to screen possible contenders, and with most contenders having to use the same acronyms and titles and so on, it is difficult

continue reading
29 Oct 2020

0 comments

How to balance client time with practice development

From

A genuine challenge for advice firms right now is balancing client time as well as do all the work necessary to lift standards and improve business systems.  There are after all only so many hours in a day, but then there are deadlines for when new standards and rules have to be met if one

continue reading
08 Sep 2020

0 comments

Are you a GOOD Adviser?

From

Another week and another bad adviser horror story in the local press…yet, another week and thousands more consumers work with their good adviser privately and attract no headlines. They just make progress quietly towards their savings or investment goals, or protecting their families, or building financial safety nets, and so it goes on… On the

continue reading
28 Aug 2020

0 comments

Professional Service: There’s extra money going the extra mile

From

Often professionals forget how valuable the service bit is in a “professional service” business. Everyone has heard some story about how a business did well from going the extra mile for a customer…but rarely do you hear about a professional services business that has a standing process for going the extra mile because they know that it

continue reading
22 Jul 2020

0 comments

Practice growth requires leadership more than management

From

The most frequent thing I see that prevents great practice growth and holds advisers back from developing their dream business is a lack of vision. I don’t mean “vision” in the namby-pamby buzz-word sense of having a beautiful set of words on a plaque on a wall that nobody really cares about.  A clear vision

continue reading
01 Jul 2020

0 comments

Demonstrate value and prospects will choose you

From

Smart advisers today make sure they are demonstrating their value to prospects. Having a prospect who is interested enough to hear what you have to offer has always been a necessary step on the path to getting a client, and it obviously remains so today. However, who the prospect decides to continue their buying journey with is

continue reading
15 Jun 2020

0 comments

The five essential soft skills for professional advisers

From

Technical knowledge will only take you so far, and sometimes (like when the world is in lockdown and there are no rational markets) it won’t take you anywhere at all. There are times when what you know just doesn’t matter.  Knowing how to deal with people is all that matters sometimes.  They are the two

continue reading
22 May 2020

0 comments

If you need more clients then you probably need different skills

From

Financial advisers who need more clients need to be better marketers than salespeople in today’s environment.  For most that means they probably need new, or more, skills.  Not more technical skills; more commercial skills. While financial advisers have been figuring out how to get ever-more-compliant and deliver yet-more-paper over the last few years, consumers have

continue reading
04 May 2020

0 comments