Articles for Advisers

2021 A Year in Review

by

Taking a look back at the highlights of 2021 for Lifespan Financial Planning, and the industry. 

We are nearly there. With 2021 rapidly coming to a close, it is worth reflecting on the challenges that we all faced this year, but also keep in mind, the hope that we all should have for the future of our emerging profession. This time last year, we couldn’t wait until the year had come to a close, believing that 2021 had to have much more in store for us than just legislative overwhelm and continued challenges in delivering advice affordability. Unfortunately, it probably didn’t live up to the hype!

But there were definitely some highlights for Lifespan Financial Planning, as showcased in this fabulous showreel.

You can also click here for this article, Reflections on 2021 by Eugene Ardino, as published in the Financial Standard.

Elevate your financial planning website – from electronic brochure to client engagement tool

by

For a financial planning practice, your website is one of your most visible and valuable marketing assets. It is arguably the most important expression of your brand. As an expression of your brand, it is key that your website engages your preferred clients with a consistent brand voice.

Prashant Nagarajan, Financial Adviser and Co-founder of Finnacle, has recently undertaken a major website evolution. “It’s important to remember that your website development is not a set and forget scenario”. “The key driver for our website redevelopment was to make sure it talks to our prospects and clients in the same way we talk to them over the phone or when we catch up with them. Our website was doing a good job, but not as good as we do in person.”

A financial planning website should establish and build trust. Finding tangible proof you are real people and a real brand is a critical aspect of establishing trust, as is having a compelling and consistent message.

“Our website builds trust before our prospects pick up the phone. (This is really important as) 80% of the client decision making process is made before they call us.”

By elevating your website from simply verifying that you exist and provide certain services, to developing a website that speaks to and engages with your preferred clients in your brand voice, this enables you to leverage your position, generate high-quality leads and referrals, and dramatically improve your practices bottom line.

A recent study undertaken by Elixr Consulting found that advisers who service ‘anyone who asks for advice’ were quoting advice fees on average 37% less than advisers who identified preferred clients or target markets, AND their average EBIT (earnings before interest &tax) was 20% lower than those advisers who were more targeted in their approach.

“When we first started up, we focused on the 20-40 market, then researched looked at what the right problem was for them. Our research told us that the biggest issue for this demographic was first home buyers, and our market research narrowed that to 30-40 year olds”. Finnacle first looked at WHO we wanted to serve, then WHAT was the problem was that we could solve, and finally WHICH services we needed to provide in order to solve their problem.

“(Our website is) as much about saying no to the wrong people as saying yes to the right. If a 50 year old were to visit our site, I would be really surprised if they became a client. Our site is not designed for them – this is not your Collins Street office.”

Attention spans are shrinking, and visuals are the perfect medium through which to maximize the brief seconds websites have to establish a connection between company and consumer. Interactive content requires more hands-on engagement from a site visitor. With well-crafted headlines and approachable imagery, the millennial crowd is the obvious target audience here, and Finnacle’s writing style says as much as well. Finnacle know their audience, the questions that audience wants answered, and the intent behind their queries, all of which are hallmarks of a great digital marketing program.

The financial planning buying cycle can take a long time and many potential buyers encounter your firm long before they are ready to buy. So your website also needs to address prospects at every stage of the buying process, from awareness through consideration, and engagement. In between, a lot of nurturing goes on. It is important that a potential client can easily find relevant and timely information.

“Our website development focused on our ideal client user-based experience. If this is you, and this is what you want (to do/achieve), then this is what you need (to do)”. Each page has a specific objective and key results based on the customer journey.

The first step in the process of elevating your website from online brochure to client engagement tool is to clarify who your preferred clients are. Articulating who your preferred clients are allows potential clients to confirm, “Yes, you work with people like me”, or no you don’t! This also allows you to better understand who you are targeting, and talk in a language that reflects your brand, resonates with your preferred clients, and builds trust by demonstrating that you understand the issues they face. The better you know and understand your target market, and can address their needs, the more valuable and valued the service you will be able to provide.

Your website can be a valuable client engagement tool, and speak to the people that you want to work with.

Want to find out more? Listen to the podcast here, and contact the Lyndal and Lisa in the marketing team at Lifespan.

Aged care advice – it is time to have a solution

by

This article also appears in ifa magazine.

As an adviser, it can all be overwhelming! Ongoing legislative and compliance change, continued pressure to meet education requirements, alongside the ever-present pressure of ensuring that your clients are happy, and they are receiving the professional, quality advice that they deserve.

The traditional advice model, where your practice represents a one-stop shop for all of your clients’ needs, is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver. There is just not enough time in the day to maintain the competency you need to advise across all areas of financial advice. With Standard 10, of the FASEA Code of Ethics requiring you to “develop, maintain and apply a high level of relevant knowledge and skill”, this becomes increasingly difficult to meet where your advice proposition is broad and multifaceted.

Aged care advice is one of those advice specialties that can present some difficulties when it comes to delivering a quality, compelling and profitable advice proposition for clients. You know that your clients will no doubt need it at some point, whether that be for themselves, their spouse, or possibly an ageing loved one, however, how do you manage that need once it arises?

Every financial adviser has a role to play when it comes to addressing the aged care needs of their clients. It is however up to them how they choose to manage these needs, in terms of their business model. It is not enough to simply avoid the conversation when it comes to planning for the cost of care as your client ages, and the FASEA Code of Ethics, Standard 6 further reinforces this, with the requirement to “actively consider the client’s broader, long-term interests and likely circumstances.” If you are advising pre-retiree and retiree clients, the discussion of planning for the cost of care becomes part and parcel of the conversations you have, addressing their needs and objectives as they progress through retirement.

It is critical to understand the importance of having meaningful conversations with your clients, discussing the life that they would like to live throughout their retirement years. This includes, for example, their plans to travel during their early years, right through to how they would like to access care and support as their health declines with age. Your role as an adviser is fundamental in raising the important issues around estate planning objectives, as well as how they would like to fund the cost of care. You do not need to be an aged care specialist to have these conversations, as they are an integral part of the retirement planning process.

So, what are the options available to advisers who are committed to addressing the aged care needs of their clients – whether that be right now, or in the future?

Option 1: Become an aged care specialist. The FPA has released an FPA Aged Care Specialist™ accreditation, and there is a range of courses that have been developed to build your competency and confidence in providing quality aged care advice.

Option 2: Establish an aged care specialist within your practice. The specialist might not be you, however, there might be an adviser in your business that takes a keen interest in, or has some experience providing aged care advice, that could prove a valuable service to your clients. You might even decide to set up a separate aged care brand, to which your practice refers to.  

Option 3: Connect with an aged care specialist and partner with them to provide the aged care service to your clients. This way, you can introduce the relationship, be involved in developing the objectives and outcomes, however, the specialist provides the aged care advice directly and ensures that you are kept in the loop regarding the process.

Option 4: Outsource aged care advice to a trusted expert. Undertake your due diligence and source an aged care specialist that can provide professional aged care advice to your clients when they need it. Position the value of this strategic advice to your clients, and make sure your clients are aware that you do have an aged care solution should they need it.

It has never been so important to have an aged care advice solution embedded within your advice practice. Exactly what that solution is, is up to you. With a solution in place, you can have the confidence to have meaningful conversations with your clients about how they would like to live throughout their retirement years and enable them the freedom to choose the right care solution for them, as they age.

You can listen to the Lifespan Live podcast “The time is now – Expert insights into how to develop an aged care advice solution for your clients” here.

Lisa Gregory, Marketing Development Manager, Lifespan Financial Planning

ifa Excellence Awards 2021 Dealer Group of the Year

by

ifa Excellence Awards 2021 Dealer Group of the Year

We’re delighted to announce that the Lifespan group (Head Office and adviser network) won three awards in the recent 2021 IFA Excellence Awards, including the coveted Dealer Group of the Year! 

Lifespan CEO, Eugene Ardino was announced Dealer Group Executive of the Year, for the third consecutive year. Eugene commented, “I regard this as a recognition of everything the Lifespan team and community have achieved over the past year. To win this award in such a challenging year is humbling”. We are acutely aware that over the past 12 months the industry has suffered serious contraction, as many adviser groups and advisers have struggled to cope with both regulatory change and the unique difficulties presented by the pandemic. Thankfully, Lifespan has been able to adapt quickly and successfully to navigate these challenges, and continue to support our advisers.

More importantly, we had a strong presence as a group in finalist nominations for these awards, being represented across 13 categories. This demonstrates the quality of advice firms that we have in our network. We would like to congratulate the following Lifespan advisers on both their success last night, but also for being recognised as finalists. We are really proud of our Lifespan adviser community, and of Prashant, Sheshan, Kris, and Daniel for achieving this well-deserved recognition!

Congratulations to Kris Meuwissen, Wealtheon, being awarded Client Servicing Individual of the Year. You can catch Kris chatting with Michael Gershkov about ‘Building a thriving advice practice of the future‘ in a recent Lifespan Live podcast (Season 2, Episode 2). 

What an amazing result! 

Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners at the awards last night. It was an exciting opportunity to be able to attend the ceremony in person and connect and celebrate with everyone on the night. You can find details of all the winners and finalists here.

Client focus yields financial practice growth

by

Recently I had the great pleasure of catching up with James McFall, Lifespan licensee, Managing Director of Yield Financial, and recent inductee to the FS Power 50, top Australian influential Financial Advisers 2021. We enjoyed a lively discussion on why a focus on your clients is central to building a successful advice practice.

James believes listening to what your clients want and providing personalised solutions are the most important aspects of being a good financial adviser. And creating a team culture that’s 100% founded on creating fantastic client experiences is the most important aspect of running a successful advice practice. As he puts it, “Our first team value is clients come first. And we’re always talking about client experience. Basically, everything, always, is centered around that.”

Having always known he wanted to run his own business, with early dreams of a landscaping business, James’s career has seen him grow from mowing neighbours’ lawns, to helping clients achieve their own real estate and financial dreams. “Ultimately, what drew me to financial planning was that I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping people”. In whatever he has undertaken, from trading into focusing on property and then into, more broadly, the retirement space, his focus has always been firmly on understanding his clients’ needs and delivering an outstanding client experience.

Before you can understand what your clients need, you need to first understand who your clients are. I was interested to discover how James had gone about defining who his target market is, and what made him focus on the retirement sector once he moved away from the property business.

“We looked at our clients. Progressively, as the years have gone on, we’ve looked at where we are attracting our most interest, who the clients are that we enjoy working with the most, and also from a point of view of where it’s most economic. And where the greatest need is. That process has been a pretty big evolution, but now we’re really clear on who our target market is. And the closer we’ve become to defining it, the more rapid our traction has become. So we basically target, or can help best, local professionals over 40, to help them retire securely.”

It can sometimes be challenging getting advisers to understand that by defining your target market you are giving yourself more opportunity, not less. When advisers first start out many aren’t prepared to go out and say this is my target market, this is who I want to work with exclusively. However, as James has found, at the end of the day, if you do define your target market, the benefits that you get from it over time add up exponentially. The more focused you are on your target clients and your message, the better you can assist them. You understand them more intimately, and because of this you can deliver more value to them, and ultimately you are more valuable to them.

“I think the reality is that we’ve got a level of scale now that allows us to still be that broad. Because it’s still quite broad. I think that if I was starting again, I’d be a lot more specific and maybe broaden from there. For example, I don’t know of a financial planning firm that’s focused on helping marketing professionals. Wouldn’t that just talk directly to you?” If you’re the only person doing it, there are plenty of potential clients that would value what you offer.

It is one thing identifying who your target market is, but what did James believe was the key to managing his business growth, without compromising the client experience?

“I think that strong processes and team training and alignment is what is essential to making the client experience repeatable. So to support that and to help ensure that client experience, we’ve process

mapped every step of our advice process in our database AI. So that means that, interchangeably, the different people in the team that are responsible for that step, can’t miss it. We have developed email templates for each step of the advice process. We’ve also written a financial processing eBook, that’s an introduction to what to expect pre-first meeting. We’ve also created a fee matrix that personalizes our quoting, so that means that whoever is providing a quote for our client, it’s going to be priced the same. And then we’ve got a strong financial plan template and the technology that underpins it. So that is what makes it repeatable”.

James has also found the integration of technology invaluable. Everything from Xero for business to LastPass for passwords. Even before COVID, Yield were using Cloud computing, which made switching to working from home so much easier. “We’ve also found Revex amazing and we’re getting more and more value out of that”. All these technological solutions help to manage business growth more efficiently and effectively, without compromising the client experience.

“Over time there have been so many things that we have learned from, but one of the best things that you can do is to implement position descriptions”. In order to succeed in growing your team and your business by delivering exceptional client experiences, this becomes increasingly important. “If people aren’t really clear on what you are asking them to do, then you’re not really setting them up for success. I think scaling a team is the hardest thing and in order to do that successfully, you have to invest the time to get the process right.”

“I’ve been in the business for more than 15 years now. And in that time, we’ve built a good strong loyal client base. We have a Net Promoter Score (NPS) feedback system which we regularly ask for, and our current NPS is 71, and we use that feedback as part of our incentive scheme”. This all helps to ensure the focus of the team is always on delivering a great client experience, gathering feedback, and making incremental improvements. Focus on great client outcomes is delivering great results, not only for Yield’s clients but for James and his team.

James summed it up by saying “I’m proud of the life that I’m making for myself and my family, the team culture we’re creating and the business that we’re building.”

 

Lifespan Financial Planning is proud to support James and his team as their licensee. To find out more about how you can join our award-winning team, please call us on (02) 9252 2000.

Key considerations when choosing your new licensee. It’s not all about the money.

by

The changing licensee landscape presents a range of options from self-licensing, boutique, mid and large-tier options, all with their pros and cons. For many, this decision is one that they want to stand the test of time. It is not a disruption that you want to linger in your business.

Often the decision to change licensee has been heavily deliberated over a long time. Sometimes decisions need to be made in an instant, following licensee upheaval, or personal disruption. However, for most, these decisions hang heavily in a practice for some time, causing continued uncertainty and distraction.

Whatever option you choose, there is a misconception that the main deciding factor for choosing a licensee is always price. Advice practice principals know better than anyone, that value should always come before price. Sometimes choosing the cheapest option can be a false economy. You will often lose in other areas such as lost productivity, as you lack the support you need to thrive. But exactly how best to assess that value as it relates to you and your business, can prove challenging.

Rather than licensee fees being the primary deciding factor in choosing a licensee, often increased fees at your current licensee, can create the impetus to start evaluating your options. Skyrocketing operational costs can be the driver for many to make the change.  That was the case for Kellie Tesolin, practice principal at RetireStrong, based in Brisbane, Qld. Kellie joined the Lifespan Financial Planning community back in July 2021.

“The licensee that I was previously with significantly increased their fees. They had frozen their fees for three years, …, but then the new fee structures came out and they were nearly three times the price. For a single operator, single adviser practice you had to look at other options because it wasn’t viable to continue…” (under their new fee structure). 

However, despite high fees being the driver in Kellie deciding to look for a new licensee, it wasn’t the primary factor in deciding which licensee was the best fit for her practice.

Kellie had in-depth conversations with a range of people, including other advisers and contacts that she had within several financial planning practices. 

“I talked to other advisers. My previous boss actually moved to Lifespan about 18 months previously. I asked him and I asked other people who’d moved to other licensees and heard how their experience had gone. I’d also spoken to the paraplanner I used to work with, which was important because I’m a small business. I do a lot of the admin work myself. So, I wanted to hear what they thought of licensee support and the feedback I received about Lifespan was all positive.”

The value of being a part of a tight-knit community should also never be underestimated. After all, most small business operators want to be a part of something bigger. A place to connect and share ideas and insights with like-minded advisers. For Kellie, this was a critical consideration in her decision-making.

“Lifespan is approachable and very supportive and helpful. That’s what I was looking for. I wanted a culture that is friendly, and the opportunity to do things face-to-face. Where I came from, there weren’t any face-to-face conferences or Professional Development Days. When I saw Lifespan was doing a face-to-face conference this year and they’ve been doing PD days, face-to-face I thought that was really good for the culture, and being able to network with other advisers would be great.”

It is important not to underestimate the value of a responsive and empathetic practice development manager through this process. To make a well-considered decision, you need to have all of the information at hand and feel well supported to make the transition. If someone is not providing you with what you need through the research process, it is a fair indication that the support on offer might not be what you are looking for. This is something that was at the heart of Kellie’s decision to choose Lifespan. Discussing the support she had received from her local QLD Practice Development Manager, Kevin Mayne, Kellie emphasised “Kevin made it so easy for me, and was a big factor in choosing Lifespan.”

If you would like to find out more about our tight-knit advice community, or simply have a confidential discussion about whether Lifespan might be the right fit for your business, please get in touch with our National Practice Development Managers.

You can also listen to this interview as a podcast here.

Kevin Mayne

ifa Show Podcast – Incoming regulations to cause ‘explosion’ in advice industry

by
ifa show podcast

In this episode of The ifa Show podcast, 2021 ifa Excellence Awards finalist and CEO of Lifespan Financial Planning, Eugene Ardino, joins host Neil Griffiths to discuss his third year in a row as finalist, Dealer Group of the Year.

Importantly Eugene discusses some of the issues industry is facing and how we are working together to address these issues, including an overcompliance in the advice industry, just days out from more regulation coming in relation to breach reporting, hawking and information sharing, which he said will cause an “explosion” in the sector.

“I think four of the upcoming regulatory changes directly impact financial advisers, which is something that I don’t know that we’ve seen too many times in the past,” he said.

“Plus, there’s been other new legislations or drastic changes to legislations that have happened this year. So, this is all flying through into the back-office cost of advisers, which then gets passed onto consumers.”

“I really enjoyed being a guest on the ifa Show Podcast. We chatted about all things awards, adviser mental health, overregulation, and even…Finfluencers!”

You can listen to the podcast here.

Winners of CoreData 2021 Licensee of the Year

by

With huge thanks to the fabulous Lifespan adviser community and team, we’re honoured to announce Lifespan Financial Planning as winners of the 2021 Core Data Licensee of the Year Award, in addition to the Large-Tier Licensee of the Year and Eugene Ardino, as winner of the Licensee Leadership Award.

The CoreData 2021 Licensee of the Year Awards are based on the opinions and views of financial advisers themselves. The Awards reflect advisers’ satisfaction with their licensees.  CoreData’s Licensee Research forms the basis of the awards, and it takes the form of an online survey of about 100 questions, covering myriad aspects of licensee offers and licensee leadership. 

In 2021 a total of 675 advisers from more than 50 licensees completed the research, generating around 70,000 data points. The depth of this research allows CoreData to contact detailed analysis of adviser satisfaction and to calculate overall satisfaction scores. As CoreData reported, in 2021 it was clear that factors beyond the functional licensing role of the licensee made the difference to adviser satisfaction. 

Licensee leadership was a closer focus of attention in the 2021 awards. There are now more than a dozen aspects of the quality, suitability and competence of leadership included in the Licensee Research, and how advisers responded to these questions for the basis of the Licensee Leadership award.

CoreData has traditionally classified licensees according to ownership: institutionally branded, institutionally affiliated, and independently owned. But the changing make-up of the licensee industry led to a change in 2021 to a classification approach based on the size of licensee:

  • Top Tier: A licensee that is part of a group or parent entity that has 500 or more authorised representatives in total authorised on its licences.
  • Large Tier: A licensee that is part of a group or parent entity that has between 100 and 499 advisers in total authorised on its licences.
  • Medium Tier: A licensee that is part of a group or parent entity that has 10 to 100 advisers in total authorised on its licences.
  • Small Tier: A licensee that is part of a group or parent entity that has two to nine advisers in total authorised on its licences.
  • Single: Licensees that have a sole authorised representative.

2021 CoreData Licensee of the Year Awards

2021 Licensee of the Year
Winner: Lifespan Financial Planning
Large-Tier Licensee of the Year Winner: Lifespan Financial Planning
Licensee Leadership Award Winner: Eugene Ardino – Lifespan Financial Planning

Connect and grow 2021 Lifespan National Conference

by

The Lifespan Financial Planning 2021 National Conference was an amazing experience for all who attended. Whether virtually or in person, everyone had the opportunity to connect and grow together, which was the theme of the conference, with over 160 registered delegates participating.

With the continued growth of Lifespan, it was a valuable opportunity for both new and longstanding advisers to connect and get to know one another. Showcasing a wide range of presentations, from economist and finance industry expert Peter Switzer discussing the investment outlook for 2021, to presentations highlighting the importance of ethics, communicating with clients, cybersecurity challenges for advisers, TPD/trauma insurance, estate planning and generating income for retirees.  Feedback regarding our speakers was impressive, with an average score in excess of 4.4/5! 

Held from 19-21 May at the Pier One Hotel in Sydney, Lifespan National Conference 2021 was one of the first major live licensee conferences to take place since our last live National Conference in Canberra early last year! This year our conference closed with the traditional gala dinner, and a great time was had by all.

The 2022 conference will be held in March in Hobart, Tasmania!

avg rating

Building a thriving financial advice business

by

Lifespan Live: Episode 2 – Building a thriving advice business of the future

In the latest podcast episode of Lifespan Live, Michael Gershkov, Lifespan National Practice Manager, has an engaging conversation with Kris Meuwissen, owner and adviser at Wealtheon, a financial planning practice based in north-western Victoria.

Kris shares his insights into how the past 12-18 months has shaped his advice business to thrive, through embracing technology, and seeking the counsel of others, to help deliver a quality advice experience for Wealtheon clients.

“We’re really trying to roll with the punches… We’re trying to make the client experience as amazing as possible with the tools and resources that we have.”, Kris says.

Embracing technology prior to the latest COVID-19 disruption, Kris has found that clients have also adapted well to interacting virtually over the past 12-18 months. It also has helped to streamline the advice experience for clients. Kris remarks, “We can utilise some of the best technology in the market, put it in front of clients, without having to send documents and wait for their return.”

The success and growth of Wealtheon, however hasn’t just come down to choosing the right technology solutions. As a small business owner, Kris has ensured that he has a good network from which to bounce ideas off and gain insights both personally and professionally.

“You’re one of my first points of call Michael. You’ve been a mentor of mine for a long, long time, but I seek advice from a lot of different people.

I’ve actually been focusing quite a lot around seeking some counsel from people like psychologists… trying to understand, a little bit more how my client thinks. How I can actually get them to communicate what they value out of life to make the advice process better for them.”

We would like to thank Kris for joining us for this episode of the Lifespan Live Podcast series.

You can listen to this podcast here. (21 minutes duration).

Lifespan Live: Episode 2 – Building a thriving advice business of the future

Lifespan Financial Planning News

Subscribe for occasional news, promotions and industry updates. Your privacy is our policy, we will not pass on any of your data to 3rd parties.

Dealer Group of the Year by 3

For Clients

For Advisers

Contact Us

Call:
(02) 9252 2000

Fax:
(02) 9252 2330

Sydney Office:
Suite 4, Level 24, 1 Market St, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

Post:
PO Box Q1917, Queen Victoria Building. Sydney NSW 1230

Linkedin Youtube