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

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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

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29 Oct 2020

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How to balance client time with practice development

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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

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08 Sep 2020

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Are you a GOOD Adviser?

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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

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28 Aug 2020

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

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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

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22 Jul 2020

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Practice growth requires leadership more than management

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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

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01 Jul 2020

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Demonstrate value and prospects will choose you

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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

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15 Jun 2020

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The five essential soft skills for professional advisers

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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

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22 May 2020

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If you need more clients then you probably need different skills

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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

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04 May 2020

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Eliminate tyre kickers and value your expertise

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Being properly valued for your expertise and eliminating the time-wasting tyre-kickers is an ongoing problem for most financial advisers. That is even more true for those making the transition from purely commission-based remuneration to generating fee-paying work where they are charging for that time or expertise. Managing the remuneration transition whilst also articulating your value

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20 Apr 2020

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How do you know your financial advice is suitable?

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Knowing that your financial advice is suitable for a client is something that every professional adviser is willing to attest to, but proving it when challenged can be incredibly difficult. Advisers are increasingly being challenged and therefore seeking assurance that their practices are robust and will withstand such scrutiny.  Whether that scrutiny is a client

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30 Mar 2020

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