Financial Planning Archives - Page 2 of 5

Building Your Reputation: Talk About The Elephants In The Room

by Tony Vidler When Accountants struggle to be highly trusted then financial advisers are going to have a real battle doing so. If the Accountants only get rated as “Highly trusted” in professional ethics and honesty by less than half the population then what chance that an Insurance Broker will rank higher in the […]

Imagine if we REALLY were 100% honest with clients

by Tony Vidler We are expected to be 100% honest with clients, and total honesty with clients is a wonderful concept but 100% honesty in all things with our clients would kill the relationships and kill the industry. Don’t get me wrong: I believe in full transparency and ensuring consumers get all the information […]

How to create a MORE effective client report

by Tony Vidler The typical financial planning report or statement of advice produced for clients is ineffective. An effective report gets the key points across as quickly and as simply as possible, so that the reader understands them, and is then able to make decisions relatively quickly and easily. It will engage, motivate and rapidly […]

THE Business Opportunity for Advisers

by Tony Vidler Businesses are the business opportunity that most advisers just seem to walk past. Most just don’t seem to do business with businesses…and that is a massive opportunity area. The typical small business is usually doing one of two things: growing, or going…. …and either is a fabulous opportunity for advisers. Regardless […]

The missing ingredient in professional development: SKILLS

by Tony Vidler We are awash with recommendations on how to “improve the advice business” and enhance professional developement. Regulators, politicians, consumer groups, product manufacturers…competing business models that look to bypass advice entirely….all of them are making a lot of noise about how advice delivery can be improved and where professionals involved in the […]

Why your FREE service is a barrier to getting the right business

by Tony Vidler Most professionals at some point offer complimentary initial meetings or consultations with clients as a “free service”. It simply isn’t true, and that in itself prevents the right sort of clients coming your way. The fundamental reason why this just doesn’t cut it with consumers is because they don’t believe […]

If It Is Not Simple, You Are Not Working Hard Enough

by Tony Vidler It takes a lot of work to make complex advice simple and succinct, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the creation of a financial plan or Statements of Advice. Those 40 page plans, or worse those 80 page plans and pieces of written advice, are barriers to consumer engagement […]

How To Get Paid For Each Piece Of Advice You Give

by Tony Vidler Here’s a simple strategy for getting paid fairly for the advice you give….and I mean getting paid for ALL the advice you give…every step of the way. There are broadly three possible parts to any client work: 1. Planning 2. Implementing, or “putting in place” any planning recommendations 3. Ongoing […]

The Art Of Giving Suitable Advice Which Is Defensible

by Tony Vidler The most challenging area in forming a professional opinion is ensuring that it is “suitable advice”, as what is suitable is subjective – until the time comes somewhere in the future to see if the advice actually worked. Despite the issue of nobody actually knowing whether advice really was suitable much […]

Describe Your Advice Services In Practical Terms To Get More Buy-In

by Tony Vidler Advice should, almost by definition, be “practical”. Your advice services should be practical in that can be applied in the real world to achieve real differences, and any advice in any of your areas of expertise should be a clear course of action that a client can use to achieve a […]

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