When I first became an adviser, I was young, naive, overconfident and generally had no idea what I was doing.
I’d spent many years as a senior paraplanner at a large practice with advisers specialising in all areas. And during those years, I’d developed enough knowledge that I figured, “Well, if they can do it, why can’t I? I’m good with people, too!”
Turns out, it took years to develop soft skills, build a process to understand clients’ needs and gain all the additional knowledge I thought I already had at the outset. Fast forward to now, and I genuinely think the PY programme is such a valuable way to learn all those lessons – without making the same mistakes.
So: as we’ve recently finished our first professional year experience, I’d like to share some insights about the process and, hopefully, inspire other advisers around the country to take on a PY adviser.
(Before I do that, though: congratulations to my adviser for the great job they’ve done completing their PY!)
Mutual benefit
While I still have some criticisms about the PY programme’s requirements and think there could be improvements to the current system, I think it provides a great environment for a trainee adviser to understand what really happens in meetings. It helps demonstrate the importance of having a proper structure to your meetings and advice process.
Most importantly, it helps them learn the soft skills, which we all know can be a big challenge for a new adviser.
It’s not just the PY who benefits from the experience, though. Throughout the process, we continually discussed how we were conducting meetings and whether we could improve in any way (which we have). We also continually looked at new systems and technology to see how it could assist her (and me).
I also found that she helped free up my time – contrary to a lot of advisers’ expectations about PYs. As part of her role, she conducted ongoing reviews for existing clients, which gave me more time to see new clients as well.
Finally, I can’t help but share in the satisfaction of helping her grow to become an adviser.
How it works
Now, the PY process isn’t without its pitfalls. It can be time-consuming at the start, as you need to ensure you’re taking your time to explain everything you’re doing (and why). Ultimately, though, you get out what you put in.
The programme has four quarters:
First quarter
In this quarter, the PY shadows you in meetings. It’s a great starting-point so they can experience what happens in the first meetings, see how you’re dealing with clients' questions and concerns and generally gain confidence.
You need to spend time before and after those meetings walking through what was said, what your thoughts are, asking them questions about how they would deal with a situation and what they thought the advice should be. This takes more time from the day, but it’s worth it.
Second quarter
Here, the PY conducts the meetings while you oversee all parts of the process: advice, reviewing SOAs, feedback and so on. You’re now the one doing the shadowing, and the PY gets a crack at the advice – with the comfort of knowing you can step in and assist if needed.
It’s also a great opportunity to provide the PY with guidance before the meeting and feedback afterwards.
Third and fourth quarters
In these quarters, the PY conducts the meetings and you oversee the advice process outside of the meetings. By now, there’s a lot less time involved as they’re starting to get the swing of things.
They’re required to hold six new business meetings and six review meetings per quarter. The time you put in at the outset starts to come back now.
There are also regulatory issues. Being part of a large licensee had its benefits as they did a lot of the legwork. There are quarterly requirements and supervision of all their work.
However, the PY gets hit the hardest. They’re required to journalise each day through the whole process, which takes time out of their day and ultimately costs the business. This is one part where I think they could relax the rules a bit.
The impact
How did clients feel about it, though?
Well, they were very understanding. They were happy to have a PY running the meeting – as long as it was positioned well – and, in fact, I’m pretty sure some clients are happier when they see her now!
They also suggested they liked the idea of being a part of helping someone learn, while knowing they still had my professional experience guiding the advice in the background.
On a personal level, I realised something interesting: when you’ve been doing something for so long, you sometimes take for granted the knowledge you’ve developed. The PY process has made me take a step back and realize that I am good at what I do. I really do help a lot of people and change some lives. The confidence we bring can be life-changing for some.
On the other hand, it’s also made me realise you never stop learning. I don’t always have the answers my PY asks of me, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be learning right up until retirement (or at least I hope so).
Oh, and one more takeaway: as some of you may know, I’ve always considered myself “generalist” adviser, keeping my finger on the pulse in all areas. I’ll continue to do this, as I think the industry needs both specialist advisers (dealing with industries or client types) and more all-encompassing generalist advisers (like your GP).
However, we’ve started to target younger accumulators for the PY, while I’ve spent more time working with more complex clients or those in the pre-retirement/retirement space. We are likely to continue building our processes around this.
Final thoughts
If there were any specific tips I could provide to other advisers thinking of taking on a PY, I’d say:
- Take the time at the start to really work on the training. Help provide the right process both before, during, and after the meetings.
- Focus on the pipeline and have confidence in your PY. Our professional year went over the year, and I hold myself responsible for this one. We didn’t target particular clients and held back from putting her in front of certain clients out of concern they may not be the right fit.
We learned from that, and once we started to put her in front of more clients, we realised we didn’t need to be concerned. - Don’t let the fear of losing time hold you back. Yes, there’s time at the start – but like most investments, if you give it enough time, you will start to see the rewards. Our PY has helped strengthen relationships with our existing clients, and the organic growth of the client book has significantly jumped over the last two years.
- Treat your PY well, provide flexibility, be fair with remuneration and provide long-term growth and incentives. This shouldn’t be a concern.
- Don’t assume the PY programme only works for big businesses. I run a small business with one adviser – sorry, make that two advisers now! – plus an additional paraplanner/administration. And I’ve found the whole process incredibly valuable.
If it wasn’t clear already, I strongly suggest you consider going down the PY path. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or share your own experiences. The more advisers talk about this, the more chances we’ll get the young bloods joining our ranks!
Advisely Board
