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Six secrets to succession
This guide, free to all Advisely members, gives you an in-depth strategy for transitioning your business – and avoiding the pitfalls you might find along the way. Click below to download the report now.
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The wisdom of being a client of yours
One of the key fundamentals for an advisory business – one that becomes and remains successful, anyway – is that the client has a good experience, each and every time. What happens to a client when they are dealing with your practice? What do they experience? What makes you, as the practice principal/owner/adviser,…
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The magic of tiny tweaks and small wins
When Anne Graham found out she was in the Advisely Index top 10, she realised it was because of the little things – small changes that, over time, had a tremendous effect on the efficiency of her business. Here, she explains what those changes were. In the world of financial planning, success often hinges on the ability to…
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Creating your vibe
You need one thing above everything else, to create a vibe which is genuine and personal for your clients – you must truly know your clients. Unfortunately, it’s our experience that very few practices are taking full advantage of their CRM functionality to capture the information they need to create that key personal,…
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It's the vibe
In the 1997 Australian movie classic, The Castle, friend and local (inept) solicitor for the Kerrigan family, Dennis Denuto, tries to answer a judge’s question with this wonderful "catch-all" response: “It’s the vibe of the thing, your honour.” Sadly, the judge didn’t accept Dennis’s carefully constructed legal argument.…
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Hearing what's unsaid
In this series, Business Health principal Terry Bell explores the client experience across four key dimensions. Drawing from analysis of Business Health's CATScan Client Satisfaction Survey data, he challenges our preconceived notions about what clients really want from their adviser and defines a step-by-step approach for…
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Hearing what’s unsaid: age matters
Does age really matter? The latest snapshot of our CATScan Client Satisfaction Survey database reveals that in the average Australian advisory practice, 55% of clients are over 60 and 48% are already retired or otherwise no longer gainfully employed. While you could see this as successful penetration of what has been the…
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Hearing what's unsaid: principal dependency
Through our latest Future Ready IX analysis, we know that 70% of advice practices are run by a single owner and, in the majority of these cases, risk management is poor. Think key person and succession planning, for example. The CATScan dataset now contains feedback from over 45,000 Australian clients, all of whom are…
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When was the last time you reviewed your review (process)?
Of all the interactions an adviser has with his/her client throughout the year, there’s no doubt that the review (we prefer "progress to plan") is the most important. It’s perhaps the only situation where the adviser has complete control; they have power over everything from the timing to the content, participants and…
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What is an adviser’s true capacity?
A wise man once told me that the problem with the world today is that there is too much emotion and not enough data. Operating an advice practice always has, and always will be, a numbers game. Put more clients in the funnel to convert more new clients. Get clear on your cost to serve to build out your advice fees. And…
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What are the top 3 things you do in your practice to provide a great client experience?
I loved @Kim-Payne 's latest video on Baselines, blind spots and black holes in the client experience. It can get so overwhelming to know where to start sometimes, focusing on those moments that really matter is a great approach. Have you watched the video? I'm keen to hear what top 3 things you do in your practice to…
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Use it or lose it
Click below to download the report. If you would like to receive CPD, please click here and complete the quiz.
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The victory of the urgent
Why is it that urgent almost always seems to take precedence over the important? Is it simply the squeaky wheel impact? Will it really matter if the urgent is deferred for the important? Seven weeks into the new year, a client who had scheduled a business planning workshop last December called to defer because "something"…
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How are practices building their teams?
I often find conversations with my fellow advisers veering into some very familiar territory. Stop me if you’ve heard any of these before: how can we trim down the time spent on preparing advice documents? What's the most effective way to streamline our investment offerings? Is recommending insurance still worthwhile given…
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Continuing Professional Development
Hi Team Quickie question. What are you paying per person for Kaplan On Track - CPD please?
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Striking a balance
In our recent blog, we discussed the importance of striking a balance between efficiency and compliance. What practical steps have you take to get this balance right in your business? Are there any tools/solutions you would recommend?
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Why cyber risk can make or break an advice business
Over the last five years, digital signatures, strategy modelling tools and virtual client meetings have all become commonplace in today’s advice practice. Iress’s 2023 Advice Efficiency Report found a strong correlation between effective use of technology and profitability – but these new opportunities also present new…
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Don't let the stuff distract from your main game
It’s no surprise that against a global background of political, economic and societal change, we’re noticing increasing levels of disengagement in business – between employer, employee, clients, service providers and so on. We notice it every day in the advice firms we work with. It’s not something new (and it certainly…
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How are we going (really)?
"No, I’m not aware of my employer’s business goals for the next 12 months." Unfortunately, this is a response we regularly receive when we’re conducting a staff survey on behalf of the owner/principal of a financial advice business. In fact, in the latest analysis of our US clients, 62% of staff expressed this view. A…
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What steps have you and your team taken to address cybersecurity risk?
Recent CoreData research suggests advice practices could lose at least 13% of business in the aftermath of a cybersecurity incident. In light of this alarming figure, I want to know what steps have you and your team taken to address cybersecurity risk? I also encourage you to register for the upcoming webinar on February…
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Three ways to stress-test your cyber plan for 2024
Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) data shows a cyber crime was reported every six minutes and cost small businesses $46,000 on average in the last financial year. Research shows financial services firms are 300 times more likely to experience cyber attacks than other institutions. As advice practices review their…
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What is limiting your efficiency?
It seems between compliance requirements, size of advice documents and the general administration practices need to keep up with, no one is feeling at the top of their game. I would love to hear what areas you are struggling with, or if you have found some solutions that may be helpful to us all!
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The struggle for adviser capacity
These days, we see advisers doing more administration work than we saw 5 or 10 years ago. Research, plan requests and even application forms are unnecessarily taking up their time and stifling capacity. And this is not simply due to more compliance. So what's driving the hesitation to hand-over to a support role? Is it…
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Get with the program
While there's a lot to discuss in 2024 already, there were a couple of stats from US-based financial software company YCharts that caught our attention late last year. According to their research, almost one in two clients had switched their financial adviser (or had seriously considered doing so) since the start of the…
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Cyber crime: a driver of sleepless nights?
Advice businesses across Australia are all faced with the increased threat of cyber incidents. Many hold data that is very sensitive about a client’s situation – whether it be health, tax or banking. Despite the increase in automation, there are still emails and files that can compromise a business. Sometimes these can be…
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The hunt for purpose and passion
In life and work, many of us want to spend more time doing things that are important and provide us with a clear sense of purpose. When the stars align, we feel happier and more satisfied. Despite the significant opportunities in our industry to assist clients and achieve success, many of us feel fatigued, drained and…
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You hire a coach because they're not you
In our first article for the Advisely community, we discussed the importance of benchmarks and how they help you get a clear handle on how your business is travelling compared to peers – where it outperforms or underperforms and where the potential is. Our second article discussed the importance of developing a plan for…
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Ensuring your business thrives beyond you
Life is unpredictable, and sometimes things happen that we never saw coming. Whether it's a sudden health issue, a family emergency, or just the need for a well-deserved break, there may come a time when you're unable to run your advice business. The question is: do you have the systems, processes, and people in place to…
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Who proactively asks their software stack providers about security?
The results are in from ASIC's Cyber Pulse Survey, and the report has been released (12th November 2023). So much to unpack! One of the points they make is around supply chain risk. Without looking at the survey, I'm interested to know your thoughts on the percentage of advice firms that have already asked their software…
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Benefit for advice businesses that offer general insurance to HNW clients goes beyond good service
I have read many articles over the years about servicing High Net Worth (HNW) clients in the financial services industry; however, most businesses that put together a HNW Best of Breed service model do it without looking through the eyes of their clients. In fact, very few businesses have a model that effectively and…