Modern Adviser or Dinosaur? 5 Ways You Can Make The Evolutionary Leap

February 10, 2017 Modern Adviser

The financial planning sector continues to change at an accelerating speed – being a modern adviser means not only keeping up with industry changes but advances in technology. In many ways these changes have made the life of a financial planner easier especially those who have embraced that change.

Are you a modern adviser?

Here are five ways you can tell if you are a modern adviser or a dinosaur:

  1. How many kids do you have?
    Spending valuable face to face time providing details of an address, personal information and asset & liabilities is waste of client time and money.The modern adviser has collected all this mundane information and much more prior to the meeting with an electronic questionnaire that the client has completed in their own time. This allows the adviser to plan a meeting that captures all the clients concerns and potential strategies that can be explored.
  2. Death by meetings
    Ok I’m a high income earning professional and so is my wife, we’re meeting our financial adviser this afternoon so I need to drive to the meeting, find and pay for parking, attend the meeting, and drive back to the office to finish that report and will probably have to work back for two hours to catch up on the lost time.The modern adviser understands that their client is busy and values efficiency just as much as personalised service. Your meetings need to be well structured with definable outcomes and you need to get through a lot of information and show a lot of value in every meeting.
  3. Trust me I’m an adviser
    Global Financial Crisis, Storm Financial, Great Southern, easier to become a Financial Planner than a Hairdresser…there is not a day that goes by when we don’t read something about our industry in the media and most of it is not good. The modern adviser uses real time modelling calculators and visuals to explain complex strategies in a way that the client can understand and in the process shows the value that the client can expect either in dollar terms or peace of mind. This empowers the client to make an informed decision having chosen the strategy that best suits their circumstances.
  4. Annual Review Agenda
  • Greet client & ask about the kids
  • Portfolio has performed well
  • Re-weight to balanced
  • Sell underperforming fund and purchase alternative
  • Sign here and we will see you again next year.

The modern adviser understands that this is already being done for free by industry super funds and does not add value for a client. A structured and efficient review process is required, gathering information prior to the meeting to determine what concerns the client has, what’s changed in their circumstances, what’s changed in financial legislation and what’s changed in market conditions so that the adviser can apply their knowledge and skills to identify opportunities or threats across all six areas of financial advice and provide real value.

Modern Advisers ask to be referred to friends

Most advisers don’t ask for referrals, and if they do, they aren’t getting much of a response. Usually this is because they really aren’t that proud of their service, can’t articulate it well and can’t show their clients a structured repeatable process that their friends will clearly benefit from if they are referred.

The modern adviser uses social media to broadcast their message and then direct any prospects to a website that is interesting and dynamic with videos and educational tools that are easy to use, fun and informative.

So are you modern adviser or dinosaur?

Hans Egger is a recognised thought leader in client engagement he has been a financial adviser for over 16 years and is passionate about providing client education and communication tools for the financial planning industry. He is the managing director and co-founder of the AstuteWheel – a client engagement software supported by an online suite of tools for financial advisers to give better advice to more clients.

 


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