AMA: I'm Jess Lamb, Xplan expert and Director at Practice Dynamix, Ask Me Anything!
Advisers and paraplanners, are you providing the best possible experience during the client review? And how could you be using Xplan to be making the process even more efficiency? Join me here on Thursday 13th November from 3pm to 4pm to find out! Whether it’s about maintaining client data integrity, automating workflows and client comms, 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 in the discussion forums and make sure you tag me at jessica.lamb🤓 Xplan Hint: Don’t get caught with your pants down with IressID
Did you know that IressID is coming? You may have seen the emails and messages already, but in case you haven’t, make sure to read on as this will affect every user. IressID is a centralised identity management system that provides secure, streamlined access across Iress products. What this means for you is that you’ll be able to easily login to Xplan, Community, and Learning Centre using the same ID, and with more security of your access and data. If you have an Xplan login, this will switch over to logging in via IressID. IressID will be rolled out to all sites progressively over the course of 2025, so you will need to make sure you’re prepared, or you might find yourself locked out of Xplan! Everything you need to know is in this Community guide. Please take the 5 minutes to read this guide to save yourself any angst once IressID goes live on your site. As always, our Service Desk team via Iress Connect is ready to help if you have any trouble with the instructions! NB: If your site is IressID ready, you’ll see a banner saying "Iress ID is coming to your Xplan site this week" pop up in Xplan. Otherwise, each Xplan user will be notified closer to the date when your site is scheduled to roll out.
Expected Revenue Tracking
Hi Team Expected Revenue Tracking – Pipeline Tracking Our business is currently using spreadsheets to track the following: Adviser Meetings and Outcomes Client Meetings Adviser Meeting Types (examples: Review, Ad-Hoc, SOA presentation meeting etc) Adviser Outcomes (examples: no change, SOA, ROA, proceed in full, proceed in part, not proceeding) Expected Revenue Matrics Expected initial one-off upfront fee for service fee $ Expected one-off implementation fee $ Expected Initial one-off Risk insurance commission $ Expected ongoing adviser service fee $ /pa Expected ongoing risk insurance commission $ /pa We currently reconcile these revenue metrics (points 4–8) using Revex as our revenue payment system (previously using CommPay). How can XPLAN help us to manage: Revenue Tracking Automation Pipeline tracking Reporting to provide: Expected initial revenue vs Received initial revenue Expected ongoing revenue vs received Ongoing RevenueHuman behaviours in the digital world should reflect what we do physically in the analog world.
What I mean by that is in a physical sense, we would all bend over backwards to help our clients and keep them safe, but so often, those behaviours are not reflected in the digital world of protecting clients' data. It's fair to say it's not intentional; we don't know what we don't know. But what we do know, is it is a recognised unknown, so we should take the time to find out what you and your team can do. Episode 6 of the CPD Masterclass covers a few of these unknowns, but the list is long and requires a bit more time to change habits, behaviours, and culture. What are your analogies for helping your team understand the seriousness of protecting your client's data? Don't forget to check out Episode Six and get your CPD! Episode 6: Sizing up cyber risk | AdviselyWhat 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.What 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?What 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.
