Compliance Archives - Tony Vidler

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 […]

Compliance Can Be Torture For Consumers

by Tony Vidler Compliance has a lot to answer for. Compliance can be torture for consumers, and that is not good for them or the industry. One of the truly negative consequences of evolving best practice advice standards is the trend to torture clients with excessive paperwork. Now torture is a rather harsh word, and […]

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 times are a changin’…Business as usual is a dead end!

by Tony Vidler The difference between any two professional practices filled with well qualified and well meaning people is usually that a different culture exists in each. All businesses develop a “way we do things here” over time…whether they meant to or not. A culture evolves within the business…whether you wanted it to or […]

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 […]

Full Transparency? It pays to keep some secrets from clients

by Tony Vidler In this age of full transparency for professional services there is a tendency for advisers to tell clients everything…but there are just some things you shouldn’t tell them in advance. If you want to give yourself a reasonable chance of creating clients who are a little surprised and delighted with […]

Regulatory Reform: The Danger Of Knee-Jerk Reactions

by Tony Vidler Regulatory reform is everywhere (in the west at least) in financial services and the biggest distraction for advisers is what they need to do to adjust for it…again…and the focus is almost always entirely upon the short term. Knee-jerk reactions become the norm as advisers grapple with the burning questions, such as: […]

Coaches Get Higher Fees Than Advisers. Do That Then.

by Tony Vidler As more financial advisers move into fee-based work the common question seems to revolve around what fee level is right for them and their clients. High fees are not great, but higher fees are needed to run the advisory firm. So obviously the first thing is working out what fee […]

Written Advice: Should it be Clear? or Concise? Or Effective?

by Tony Vidler When it comes to delivering our written advice to clients there is a tendency to be guided by the words used by the regulators, or law, in how that advice is framed or written. The written advice, be it financial plans or Statements Of Advice being delivered to clients, are however […]

The 4 Step Ethical Test for Financial Professionals

by Tony Vidler I attended a Rotary function as a guest and ‘discovered’ the best ethical test I’ve ever heard. When I say ‘discovered’, I personally didn’t discover anything at all…but I was introduced to The Rotary Philosophy which was a discovery for me. It is hardly new, having been written in 1932, however amidst […]

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