Even though you’d like to be an expert in every facet of financial planning, the reality of business means such complete expertise may never eventuate. While no two clients are the same, you may regularly find yourself dealing with a similar type of client based on your region, its demographics and referrals you receive. Often that repetition will define your expertise.
So what happens when an out-of-the-box client walks through your door or an existing client throws a new challenge your way? Well, here’s the benefit of surrounding yourself with the right type of people. People who are not only happy to share and support you can also form a knowledge base you can leverage to confidently assist any type of client challenge you may have.
A few weeks ago an office colleague and I spent an hour receiving technical advice from an interstate adviser in our dealer group. The next day I spent an hour with a different interstate adviser guiding him through business development advice. The end result was both clients received better outcomes, and as advisers, we all gained in experience.
This isn’t a rare occurrence because I’ve long encouraged this type of reciprocal help and I’ve sought to unite the type of people who are genuinely interested in offering it. Varying skill sets and wide knowledge bases are great, but they also need to be combined with a sharing environment that encourages professional growth.
Creating an environment that encourages advisers to share their skill sets and knowledge base ultimately removes internal competition. There’s no totem pole to climb, there’s no pecking order and there are no egos that need stroking. The feedback from advisers on this type of sharing and supportive culture can’t be more positive; especially advisers who have joined from larger institutionally backed groups.
This environment encouraged one former institutional adviser to make the switch after attending our conference. To put it bluntly, he was astounded by the “lack of a BS hierarchy”. A quote I’m proud of because as anyone in management would understand, it’s more enjoyable to spend an hour helping someone than five minutes massaging an ego!
Importantly, the capacity to share knowledge and support fellow advisers grows with technology. The ability to share screens and video conferences removes location constraints and ensures sessions are efficient and targeted.
I’m proud to say I’ve been able to benefit from this collective knowledge as many times as those within the dealer group have benefited from my knowledge. As I’m still in the business of giving advice, I know it has made me a better financial planner and it’s greatly benefited my clients.
Peter is the managing director of FYG Planners. He is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) who started in the financial services industry in 1981. A specialist in business development, Peter’s role primarily focuses on providing strategic planning advice to FYG Planners on its future direction, improving the technical skill base of the group, identifying business growth opportunities and services that can be developed for use by FYG Planners Advisers.
