best practice Archives

Eliminate tyre kickers, and value your expertise properly

by Tony Vidler Being properly valued for your expertise and eliminating the time-wasting tyre-kickers is an ongoing problem for many financial advisers. That is even more true for those making the transition from purely commission-based remuneration to generating fee-paying work where they are charging for that time or expertise. Managing the remuneration transition whilst also […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The 6 P’s of Sustained Peak Performance

by Tony Vidler How to stay on top of your game, get the results that you want in business, and maintain peak performance….it all comes down to having a system, or a process. Consistent output does after all usually result from consistent inputs….but putting in the right amount of the right things is what […]

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 […]

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 […]

Best Practice Advice Means Meeting Client Expectations Too, doesn’t it?

by Tony Vidler What constitutes “Best Practice” advice process is a constant work in progress, but it does not develop as rapidly as either technology or client expectations do. In fact, there is a distinct probability that the gap between what professionals call best practice advice and what clients expectations of best practices are continue […]

How Much You Know Is Not That Important

by Tony Vidler Professional financial advisers know way too much to be used in any given client meeting or engagement. Yet too many think that how much you know is what matters. One of the great skills of the super successful professionals in fact is figuring out what stuff they know which is not […]

Client Focus or Compliance Focus?

by Tony Vidler I support a compliance focus 100% ….but I support a client focus 100% too. All too often it is impossible to achieve 100% for both simultaneously though. Where does a professional compromise? Or does one not compromise? I think this picture captures the challenge of delivering compliant “best […]

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