AMA: I'm Phil Anderson, GM Policy, Advocacy & Standards at FAAA, Ask Me Anything!
Have a burning policy question on DBFO or CSLR? Join me here onWednesday 31st July from 2pm to 2:30pm. With 12 years of experience in the professional association space working on the development and advocacy of major financial advice policy, I'm here to answer all your questions. Start popping in your questions below ahead of time and Ask Me Anything! Save the AMA date in your calendar here.Don't forget to click the bell button in the top-right corner to follow the discussion thread.Phil-Anderson4 days agoAdvisely Partner
POLL: Advisers, what do you wear to client meetings?
I just listened to the latest episode of the Upfront podcast where financial adviser and host Emmanuel Asuquo chats with personal branding expert Jennifer Holloway. It was a fascinating discussion about how the choices you make with attire ultimately influence the level of trust your clients have in your service. The interesting part to me, at least, was not whether you should or shouldn't wear a hoodie to meetings but how consistent wearing said hoodie is with your brand. So I want to know from the advisers here – what do you wear to client meetings and what impression do you think clients have of what you're wearing? Do you have any stories of mistaken first impressions?Rainier-Reyes5 days agoAdvisely Team
AMA: I'm Matthew Townsend, Xplan tasks expert and product manager at Iress, Ask Me Anything!
Got a burning question? Join me here on Wednesday 10th July from 2pm to 2:30pm. With years of experience helping advisers, paraplanners and licensees streamline their task management on Xplan, I’m here to help. Start popping in your questions below and Ask Me Anything! Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions in thediscussion forums and make sure you tag me at MatthewMatthew5 days agoIress Team
What Skills Matter in an AI-Driven Financial Services Industry?
I've been giving a lot of thought to how the increasing presence of artificial intelligence will affect how we hire and develop talent in the financial services industry. Would love to hear what everyone else is thinking. As AI gets better at handling routine tasks and data analysis, the kind of work we typically give to new hires to cut their teeth on, it raises some important questions. For starters, what kind of roles and responsibilities should we be hiring for now? Should we be focusing more on bringing in people with strong interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking abilities? People who are able to form genuine relationships with clients and come up with original solutions to difficult problems? What do you think are the key roles we should be hiring for now? I'm eager to hear your ideas on how businesses can attract, nurture, and retain top talent in this new era.Falling into Advice
Question: Who has had a great experience in the last couple of years, that they would like to shar, bringing on a new adviser from another career, location, education back ground? Why? We are now talking to a diverse range of ‘future advisers’ from all types of backgrounds including the undergraduates university cohort Striver is known for. ‘Falling into Advice’ is part of the fabric of what has got the profession to where it is today.Alisdair23 days agoHas anyone used an avatar or AI for client engagement yet?
Hey everyone, I've seen a few sessions about advisers using an avatar to present SOAs amongst other parts of the process for client engagement. I also work with a large Mortgage Broking practice who have been seeing the same stories, where some of their peers are using bots for engagement and queries. One tool sits in on zoom meetings like a separate attendee, then records the whole meeting and transcribes, which can then be summarised. I'm really keen to start using some of these tools wondering if anyone has started using this tech and what your experience has been? Any tips for beginners?MatTenison23 days agoAdvisely Board
Let's talk file notes.
Completing file notes is never high on an adviser's 'like-to-do list'. They're a time-consuming task, often taking the better part of an hour each time. BUT - they are a necessary evil. I'd love to know how advisers are tackling file notes in your practice. Are they: Written / typed Speech to text (with the use of software or manual entry from a dictation) Recorded as audio / video only Does anyone feel like they've nailed the file note process and are doing it efficiently?Tamara-Morey2 months agoAMA: I'm Zita White, Xplan doc notes expert and product manager at Iress, Ask Me Anything!
Got a burning question? Join me here on Thursday 13th June from 2pm to 2:30pm. With years of experience helping advisers, paraplanners, client administrators and compliance managers streamline file notes with Xplan, I’m here to help. Start popping in your questions below and Ask Me Anything! Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions in the discussion forums and make sure you tag me at ZitaWhiteZitaWhite2 months agoAMA: I'm Darren Smith and I've just implemented a business succession plan, Ask Me Anything!
Got a burning question? Join me here on Friday 21st June from 11am to 11:30am. Having recently sold my award-winning financial planning practice last year and now working as a business coach at Slipstream Group, I'm here to answer all your business transition questions. Start posting them below and Ask Me Anything! Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions in thediscussion forums and make sure you tag me at Darren_SmithDarren_Smith2 months agoWhat is your number 1 requirement when it comes to managing Client Correspondence?
There is no shortage of correspondence and communications between an Advice Practice and their Client. This can come direct from the client, from their accountant, from fund managers not to mention the correspondence created internally within your business. When it comes to managing these documents, there are many schools of thought around 'how to store' and 'where to store' this correspondance. From CRM solutions to Cloud Storage to internal servers to paper! So many factors need to be considered such as ease-of-access, security, cost to the business, and protection from theft or loss. When it comes to managing your client correspondence, what is your number 1 requirement (or top 3 if you can't narrow it down) and what drove you to pick your current method?Jessica-Lamb2 months agoOpt In and Reviews
How do you track FDS dates and reviews? How do you ensure that every client gets a review within their FDS period? We are using the FDS and review sections of Xplan. However, they two sections don't appear to be linked in any way so we're doing a lot of manual checking to ensure everyone gets a review.
User Email Signature coding for Emails
Hi everyone, I'm very new to setting up email templates and have read everything I can find so far with no luck on how I can draw in Adviser signatures set up in Xplan by going through the following pages User / Enter Adviser Name / Admin / Email / Signature Options / tick Use Personal Signature / Signature I have the Adviser's email signatures set up including their pictures, links to their websites, calendly links for clients to book appointments etc. however cannot find the syntax to add to the email templates. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks CKWhat is the #1 process you have in your practice that makes you efficient?
Being able to move Inspired Money forward, this is a question I had to ask myself very early. This allowed me to remove myself from the technical aspects of the advisory process and focus on driving the business forward into what I saw as the future of advice. Using data better easily became the singular focus for us, and set us on the journey for a tech stack to assist us use our clients data better. It’s still a work in process but I can say this has allowed us to strip 40% from the advice process for new clients and 60% of the time our for the review process.conradfrancis2 months agoAdvisely Index Top 10
AMA: We’re Dela Dzadey and Lana Graham, paraplanning and Xtools experts, Ask Us Anything!
Got a burning question? Join us here on Wednesday 22nd May from 2pm to 2:30pm. For those who don’t know us, I’m Dela Dzadey, director and advice manager at TNT Group, helping bridge the efficiency gaps in advice production for advisers and paraplanners. Lana_Graham is the Xtools product manager and resident expert at Iress, and we’ll be hanging out here to answer any questions you have. In the meantime, you can start popping your questions below and Ask Us Anything! Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions down below or in thediscussion forums and make sure you tag me at deladz or Lana_Grahamdeladz3 months agoHow do you ensure a consistent client experience?
In follow up to my article No adviser is an island, I'd love to know what practices are doing to keep the client experience front of mind for everyone in the team? How do you ensure the clients receive a cohesive experience from everyone they encounter in your practice?deladz3 months agoCreating 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, relationship building information. And, even if it’s being collected at the onboarding stage, few practices deliberately maintain this information. Simple info such as their children’ names (and their occupation or education level), details of the client’s preference for morning or evening meetings, coffee or tea, in-person or virtual meetings, wine or the ballet or both (will allow you to provide interesting content for your communications, plan events which appeal and so on), what the client is planning to do once the retire, when’s their next major holiday and so on. In other words - the ‘life stuff’. What info do you collect (and maintain) to build meaningful, long term relationships with your clients?Terry-Bell3 months agoAMA: I’m Jessica Lamb, director of Practice Dynamix, Ask Me Anything!
With over 15 years of experience in the financial planning industry and experience working with over 350 advice practices around Australia, I help bring businesses into the future. On Wednesday 24th April from 11am to 11:30am, I will be available to answer any burning questions you might have. Whether it’s about utilising the power of technology in the advice process, integrating sound business processes or uncovering Xplan’s hidden gems – start popping in your questions below and Ask Me Anything! Update: This AMA has now ended but please continue to pop your questions down below or in the discussion forums and make sure you tag me at Jessica-Lamb .Jessica-Lamb3 months agoWhat 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 excite and delight your clients?Fosca4 months agoCSLR and the cost of Dixon Advisory
This week has seen a big focus on the CSLR, and particularly the cost to the financial advice profession - $18.6m in 2024/25. The underlying story is the issue of the Dixon Advisory business. At last count, there were 1,948 Dixon Advisory complaints sitting with AFCA. To put this into perspective, AFCA received just 600 advice complaints in the entire 2021/22 year across all entities and less than 500 (excluding Dixon Advisory) in the 2022/23 year. The 10 largest financial institutions in Australia need to pay for the complaints received up to 7 September 2022 (a total of $241m), and the Government and the advice profession share the cost of the remaining 310 cases. And when I say share, I should be clear, the Actuaries appointed by the CSLR suggest that the Government will pay 1 of these matters and the profession the rest. How unfair is that? That is another story! This actuarial firm have suggested that 95% of the Dixon Advisory complaints are likely to receive a payment from the CSLR. That is a remarkably high percentage, which draws me to the evidence in the firstAFCA Dixon Advisory case. The table on page 7 of this determination illustrates the percentage of related party products held by this client (between 54% and 74%). That is an incredibly high percentage. This case rests upon the issues of compliance with the BID and the client priority rule. Who would believe that it was possible to comply with the obligation to prioritise the interests of the client, when you are recommending such a high allocation to related party products? No one can have products that were that good, and the associates of Dixon Advisory certainly were not. That is why we have this CSLR mess. This brings me to my second point; should small business financial advisers be covering the cost of the CSLR when the problem was caused by the performance of the products of a related entity? Is that entirely or even predominantly an advice problem? I welcome your thoughts on all of this.Phil-Anderson4 months agoHow do you approach your self-employed clients?
In our latest post we commented that, according to our CATScan client satisfaction database, self-employed clients were generally less satisfied with their adviser when compared to the satisfaction levels of other client types (employed, retiree). We went on to offer a few tips to perhaps lift their overall satisfaction. Given that around one in seven clients of Australian advisers are self-employed and they invariably have multiple and diverse needs, it surely begs the question - how do you approach your self-employed clients? Do you consciously differentiate your 'how' or are they treated in exactly the same manner as all clients? But perhaps the first question is - when was the last time you sought their feedback? For your consideration.Terry-Bell5 months agoLet's introduce ourselves!
Welcome - we're so glad you've joined the Advisely community! 😁 While you're here, let's play a fun game and get to know each other better! 🕹️ The rules are simple: Find the latest comment and hit Reply, then comment to say hi! 👋 to this user. You'll then introduce yourself in a new post with: What's your name? Where in Australia are you? What do you do? Are you an adviser? Paraplanner? CSO? Interested individual? When did you enter financial advice and why? Share a random thought/fun fact etc! Let's go 💪Advisely-Team5 months agoFAAA on QAR/super incentives
In a recent submission, the FAAA criticised the lack of "specific encouragement provided for people to seek external professional advice that is not tied to a single product solution" in the Government's post-QAR roadmap. Obviously, the "product solution" being referred to there is super funds. This is a broader issue than the distinction between so-called "qualified advisers" and "relevant providers" (which I talked about here), given the FAAA's concerns about potential "bias and conflicts of interest" within institutionally-aligned advice providers. So I'd like to ask: do you envision there being a clear pathway for members to get external advice in addition to, or following on from, the advice they get within their super fund? If so, should the Government be more explicit about this in its proposals? And what do you think that pathway would look like?Alex-Burke5 months agoOverlaying key life events against portfolio balance reports
We have been discussing as a team if it would be more meaningful for clients for us to overlay key life events (the purchase of a house, paying for a child's wedding, receiving an inheritance etc) over a Portfolio Balance report so the clients have some context as to the drops and peaks in their portfolio balance over a period of time. Obviously we could capture key life events as a data point moving forwards and to some degree populate them looking backwards as well, but thought it would be an interesting addition for our clients. Interested to hear of any other firms taking this approach, and how you go about it?What’s your craziest cybersecurity story?
In my latest blog, I shared a couple of stories from clients who had been compromised and were asking for everything from caravans to automatic dog feeders from China. The extraordinary lengths hackers go to obtain information can range from clever to just plain odd. So I want to know – what’s your craziest cybersecurity story?Anne-Graham5 months agoWhat 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 29th at 9:00 am AEDT where fraser-jack and I will be looking at real-life stories of cyber breaches and what you can learn from them! Click here to register.klompy6 months agoIress Contributor
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!deladz6 months ago
Client reviews
G'day All There is always a lot of focus on new client engagement and SOA production. Given most practices have way more ongoing clients than new, how are you finding the process of arranging review meetings and preparing review documentation? Could this area and the report we provide clients at review time do with some focus?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 finding the right support? A lack of trust? Or something else?Tamara-Morey6 months agoFemale Advisers only make up 23%
Female advisers make up 23% of the industry. I have been talking about about this for most of my career and during that time these numbers have not really changed. We know the advice profession is a great career path especially women, so why do we still see such low numbers? When speaking to young women in the industry they tell me that they are often overlooked for promotion from administrative and technical roles. They see their male colleagues given opportunities to progress to adviser roles over them. They are often worried about the targets set in relation to client numbers and feel that they are viewed as not being able to fulfil the expectations of the role due to family commitments. We need more advice practices recognising the young women in their businesses who would make great Advisers. They need to be encouraged to go down this pathway and given the confidence that they will do a great job. More female and male advisers need to make themselves available as mentors. Encourage your staff to attend events like FAAA Inspire to network with successful women. We also need to champion the Advice profession in universities to engage young women and men to see how great this career path can be. These are just a couple of starting ideas, I would really like to see what you think so we as a collective we can solve this problem.DebKent6 months agoWhat is your #1 efficiency tip for this year?
Are you streamlining client comms? Automating documentation? Updating your compliance process? Whether you are in the midst of planning, or are already in BAU - what is your number one efficiency tip for this year to ensure you are effective and able to achieve your 2024 goals? Let us know!Primrose_G6 months ago
How do we challenge ourselves?
We’re a group of 3 practices operating under a single license, all are XPlan based. We would consider ourselves ‘pretty good’ users of XPlan. How do we learn what we don’t know? Challenge ourselves to be better users by leveraging functionality to the maximum extent possible and delivering more value for our investment? Is there a forum (either online or in person) we can join or tap into to meet like minded practices?Your 2024 priorities
I don't know about you, but I've never been one for new years' resolutions. Time marches on without any regard for the promises you make to yourself on Dec 31st. That being said, there are already a number of important items on the 2024 financial advice calendar and I'm curious as to which of them you think will have the biggest impact on your business in the future. The most obvious one concerns the QAR – we're still waiting for the draft legislation covering the final tranches of the Government's QAR response, but Stephen Jones has indicated he expects implementation this year. Is this timeline likely or even feasible, factoring in the possibility of multiple consultation rounds? Looking at the other pins on the board, we have the adviser registration deadline on Feb 1st, the commencement of the CSLR in April and a range of ASIC enforcement activities – covering areas such as DDO compliance, erosion of super balances and cyber-security – highlighted in the regulator's 2024 priorities list released late last year. Beyond any other key regulatory dates, though, are there any important events you and your business will be focusing on in 2024? From your perspective, what does the year have in store for advice?Alex-Burke7 months agoWho 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 stack providers about the levels of security they have in place and can provide the evidence to show they did their DD. What percentage do you think have this on file?fraser-jack7 months agoHow do you stay focused on the right client?
I think the best of us get sidetracked into helping people with their challenges, especially when that's what we've had training and experience in. I'm curious about how other advisers, or even business owners "stick to their knitting"? It's so easy to say "yes" to someone especially if things are a bit quiet but what tips and tricks do you use to say "no" to stay focussed? MatTenison JennyB DebKent What to do if a referral isn’t right for you | AdviselyAnne-Graham7 months agoNew Year, New Processes?
Welcome to 2024! I hope everyone had a great break and time off to reset for a big year. 2023 felt like the year when we finally lived a 'normal' post COVID year, and everyone was absolutely exhausted by the end of it. So the question needs to be asked; What are you doing differently and what are you bringing into 2024? All tips and thoughts would be helpful!deladz7 months agoAre you Registered as a Financial Adviser?
In late November, ASIC confirmed that all financial advisers would need to be registered by the 1 February 2024 deadline in order to continue to provide personal advice to retail clients. This new obligation, which includes advisers making a declaration of fit and proper status, was part of the 2021 Better Advice Bill. The commencement of the registration requirement, which must be undertaken by licensees, was deferred as a result of a delay in the Government passing necessary legislation. That has now been done. Advisers who were registered with the TPB at at 1 January 2022, and have not changed licensee since, are deemed to be registered and do not need to take any further action. You can check if you are registered by going onto the Financial Adviser Register and search for your record. Registration status appears at the bottom of the first box. It will either say Registered or Not Registered. As at 18 December 2023, only 50% of advisers were registered. This does not apply to Provisional Financial Advisers doing their Professional Year. For more context on this obligation, please read ASIC Information Sheet 276. Make sure that you are registered, and if not then follow up with your licensee. Time is short!Phil-Anderson7 months agoYou asked, our experts answered. So what's next?
Congratulations to Twomeys senior financial plannerDarren who has won an efficiency masterclass package in the Advisely "Ask an expert" competition! Stay tuned to find out more about his experience next year with our expertsTerry-Bell fraser-jack Jessica-Lamb Tangelo Alisdair Although the competition may be over, but If you'd like to hear more from experts on everything from succession planning to compliance, cybersecurity and client engagement, you can still ask away.Primrose_G8 months ago
Advice Request Best Practice
What is seen as the best practice for advisors sending through a request for advice to be prepared to the paraplanning team? I can think of some ways using cases to have a task where the advisor completes templated notes, but most businesses that I've seen the requests are still sent via email to the paraplanning manager/senior paraplanner who then delegates the work. I imagine a wizard could be used too, but ideally we want the process to be straight forward, including detail on strategy and product recs (or considerations). I'm curious as to what works well for both new advice requests as well as SoAA/RoA processes.POLL: What will impact advice accessibility the most in the next decade? 🤔
It is commonly agreed that accessibility of advice is currently a problem and is only set to compound over the next decade. In your opinion which of the following will have the most profound impact on advice accessibility over that period? Data - efficiently in who needs advice and when People - professionals and support Software - efficiency in advice delivery Comment [1], [2] or [3] below 👇👇Alisdair8 months ago
QAR: does the first tranche cut it?
One notable omission from Treasury's draft QAR legislation is optional SOAs, which were originally going to be part of the first "stream" of reforms when the Government first responded to the review back in June. What do you think of the plan as it currently stands? The changes to fee consent, FSGs and advice in super are still included. How important to you (and your clients) was the SOA proposal?Alex-Burke8 months agoEfficient vs Effective
I'd love to hear the experts' views on Efficient vs Effective, please. I think we fall into the trap as business owners and advisers of focussing on efficiency at the expense of being effective. For instance, we can be super efficient at producing a review document (as measured by time taken, quality, content etc.) but, if the client doesn't understand the advice or is not responsive to it then it probably isn't very effective. Another example could be onboarding new staff - contracts are ready, PD is agreed, introductions to the team are made and the checklist is complete however, the new team member might not understand what's expected of them and how they fit in. So, what tips do you have on achieving the holy grail of having an efficient process or system that is also super effective at achieving your goals? peterworn Jessica-LambAnne-Graham8 months ago
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