The financial services marketplace has been changed irrevocably in our view – there can be no going back to the way it was. Clients will continue to regularly review the value they are receiving from their adviser, the regulator will remain as diligent in its efforts to protect the clients’ interests, product manufacturers will continue to look to increase sales of its products in the most efficient manner while licensees will still need to consider how they can help their advisers address all of these issues …profitably.

Of course sitting right in the middle of this is the adviser and his/her practice. While every adviser should review their current position vis a vis each of the areas mentioned above and decide the most appropriate course of action, it’s our experience that too few will. This is not to say that they will be sitting on their hands and taking it easy – far from this, we’re sure most advisers will find themselves working at least as hard this year, as they did last year – many will have to work even harder. But the  question really is – ON WHAT will they spend their time and effort? For whatever reason, it seems to us that most will do what they’ve done for most of their working life – they’ll again focus on the ‘stuff’ – responding to those enquiries which could probably be better handled by someone else within the practice, preparing plans which a paraplanner could better put together, checking on those commission reports, reading every email which comes into the practice and so it goes on …while all this type of work is important, the real question is – is it the best use of the adviser/principal’s time (and we already know the answer, right!)?

We’ve set out following a few of our favourite ‘not to do’ tasks in 2011. Whether you are a practice principal, adviser, licensee or product manufacturer we hope they’re helpful to you in achieving your goals in the year ahead.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, all of the “Stats & facts” used in this newsletter have been derived from  2010 analysis of our HealthCheck and CATScan databases.

Not-To-Do List for 2011

1. Don’t do ‘the stuff’ – stay away from it (refer earlier comments), principals and advisers alike should focus on the activities that bring greatest benefit to the practice (client acquisition, going to an even deeper level of relationship with their ‘A’ clients and building productive centres of influence).
   Stats & facts: Average no; of alliances per adviser: 1.8
   Stats & facts: Average no; of client-facing meetings per week (excl salaried advisers): 5.8

2. Don’t assume a quiet client is a satisfied one. There is only one way to be certain you know how your clients feel about you and your offer. Nothing else to say.
   Stats & facts: Practices who proactively seek feedback from their clients are achieving a 74% increase in profit (over those who don’t). Yet only 29% of Australian practices pay their clients the respect they deserve and actually seek their feedback in a properly structured manner.
   
3. Don’t run your practice with your adviser’s ‘hat’ on. If you want to truly maximize the value of your practice it has to be conducted as a business. If you’re unable to or simply don’t want to adopt this role, then perhaps it should be allocated to someone else?
4. Don’t take your staff for granted. Did you notice increasing commentary towards the end of 2010 about the lack of good quality people (the talent pool is shallow – to paraphrase several recent industry magazines).
   Stats & facts: In 79% of practices, the majority of staff have clearly written job descriptions.
5. Don’t try and navigate the challenges ahead, without a well thought out plan of action (a simple one-page with clearly defined goals, actions to achieve and timeframes is a great start) …it’s too hard, and you’re likely to miss some of the big industry issues coming your way.
   Stats & facts: Those practices with effective business planning are achieving 165% uplift in profitability.

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