Advisers and accountants would benefit by focusing on themselves and their practices – that is, you should be your number one client
Time and again you hear the story of the plumber with the leaking tap, the accountant with tax problems – and, regrettably, I see firsthand the story of the financial planner who doesn’t plan.
Don’t get me wrong, these planners are marvellous at looking after their clients. The problem is that they are so busy planning for everyone else that the plan for their business never sees the light of day.
Now, I am not going to lecture about the virtues of business planning God forbid. What I will point out though is that financial planners often need to change dealer groups because of a lack of a plan.
However, as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow I will get at least one phone call a week from a financial planner wanting to change dealer groups because a business event has happened and it requires urgent action. It is most commonly a succession planning problem they’ve been ignoring and is now no longer ignorable or the lack of new clients to talk to is now at tipping point.
Business development managers for dealer groups out in the marketplace are able to position their expertise in issues such as these and presto, solutions are found, decisions are made and the move is on. Now, I am not criticising the fact that dealer groups offer this support as it is excellent and much needed. My concern is that a dealer group should be viewed as a service provider, a business enabler, even a business partner – but certainly not a business saviour.
I encourage all financial planners to review the aspect of their business which is keeping them awake at night, and look to resolve it before it becomes critical and drastic decisions need to be made.
Start by putting numero uno on the priority list and focus on planning for you and your business. Sometimes moving dealer groups will be the only viable option, however, in forward planning you can make sure you know what the other options are and give them proper consideration. In an ideal world you should only look to move dealer groups if you fall out of love, are not getting the attention you deserve or no longer share the same vision of the future.
