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?
Tracking Client Progress
How do you track clients progress over time? We sometimes put together a report showing the balance, withdrawals and contributions each year. This helps to show how the clients portfolio grows over time. However we're doing this manually and it's time consuming. Is there any automated way to do with? Any reports built into Xplan? Do you have any other good ways to show clients their progress? It would be especially good if there was a way to link it to their goals.Succession Plan - Be honest ! How prepared are you?
This is something that is so close to my heart at the moment as I am in the home stretch of realising the dream that I mapped out 8 years ago! A real mixture of emotions and this has been 8 years in the making to get to that realisation. With a number of advisers still looking to transition out of the industry over the next 3 years I am very interested to understand and get comments on how prepared they are, is it documented in an actionable plan and what areas are they focused on to maximise their attractiveness and value. Also, how are they protecting their clients that they have nutured over many years to minimise the impact on them as this will ultimately have an reputational impact on the whole industry and the success of that transition.Overlaying 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?How 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?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 👇👇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?Virtual office, what are your thoughts?
Back in 2020, we were forced to close our office due to Covid and the many lockdowns that Melbourne had. We quickly had to mobilised the team of 10 at that time to work from home, fortunately we predominately use M365 and Xplan, with any other software being 100% cloud based, hence no server issues, which made life a little easier. Later that year we made the decision to give up our office and work virtually. Many advisers said to me that it wouldn't work for them due to their client base being older, they still say it. I would like to challenge the thinking around that, we focus on pre and post retirees, who are usually the least tech savvy of any age group, but whilst they like to sometimes see us in person for coffee or lunch, the majority of the work we do is all via video, email and phone, after all they all learnt to facetime their grandkids during covid. Our business has grown in people, clients and revenue over the past 3.5 years since we have been 100% virtual, yes it's been a lot of work, trial and error, but it can work, if you want it to. I'd love to hear from others who have gone virtual and what has worked best for you, your team, your business and your clients?
