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How to take the “R” out of FREE Advice
by Tony Vidler        Traditionally the financial services sector has been almost entirely remunerated via commission, and many advisers are still grappling with the basic question of how to make the transition – even if only in their minds – from working solely on commissions to charging clients directly for advice and/or service. Consumers perceived […]
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Nobody Believes Your Advice Is Actually Impartial AND Free
by Tony Vidler        The problem with “FREE” is nobody believes that whatever you are offering is actually free.  It might seem free in terms of there being no invoice or obvious price tag, but that doesn’t mean it is “free” does it? Consumers today are alert, have a world of information in their pocket […]
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How To Get Buy-In From Clients To Full Advice
by Tony Vidler        Clients often want advisers to deal with just one element of financial planning…their current “burning issue” that triggered the need for advice to begin with.  Getting them to engage in full advice can be tough and they need to understand what you CAN do for them, and where your knowledge and skills […]
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How do you know your financial advice is suitable?
by Tony Vidler        Knowing that your financial advice is suitable for a client is something that every professional adviser is willing to attest to, but proving it when challenged can be incredibly dificult. Advisers are increasingly being challenged and therefore seeking assurance that their practices are robust and will withstand such scrutiny.  Whether that scrutiny […]
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You fix financial worries…so why not market that?
by Tony Vidler        It seems pretty much everyone has financial worries. “Investors spend 475 hours a year worrying about money” apparently.  Well I bet the people who don’t have enough to be considered “investors” spend a heck of a lot more time than that worrying about money….but still, this is about 20 days each […]
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SOA
A Statement Of Advice should be a “statement”
by Tony Vidler        When it comes to providing advice in writing to a client there is undoubtedly unnecessary complexity usually.  In fact the proverbial “Statement Of Advice” has become anything but a “statement”.  It generally takes the form of a tome… And a “tome is a scholarly work…usually large, heavy and laborious in its detail“. […]
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Being clear about what matters most actually matters most
by Tony Vidler        Sometimes contracts just don’t provide clarity for the people who work for you. And being clear about what matters for them matters more than just about anything else when it comes to getting the best from your people. When you are running a professional services business there is one thing you […]
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Pro Bono work: it is still professional advice
by Tony Vidler        Oddly, I was asked whether pro bono work is still considered professional advice, implying immediately that it carried some lesser responsibility on the part of an adviser simply because they were not earning revneue from it. Why would pro bono clients deserve any lesser standards of ethical behaviour, professional competency or […]
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Understand The Buying Journey To Get More Clients
by Tony Vidler         The decision-making process – or buying journey as it has become known – that prospective clients go through today is complex, time-consuming for all parties, and is also often an incredibly  frustrating affair for all parties.  It is less frustrating if we understand what is actually going on and allow the […]
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Maybe the client IS the problem
by Tony Vidler        What you think is the problem is not always actually the problem.  Sometimes the person is the problem. Sometimes, maybe, the client is the problem rather than you. Before talking about clients though allow me to use a non-client example.  Picture the scene: a partner in a practice is telling me about […]
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