Taking time to take stock
At Woodward Nhill, we are continuously reviewing what we do, how we do it, and the value we’re providing to our clients. Recently, we’ve been working with Paragem, who provide a comprehensive licensing solution for professional financial advisers.
In two recent workshops with a group of Paragem advisers and principals, we dived into the question of what financial planning will look like in five years, ten years, and beyond. Who will our clients be, and how will we be serving them?
This is the same discussion that we have been having in Woodward Nhill, with the added overlay of succession planning, staffing levels, adviser and staff qualifications, and working smarter.
Our industry started from a fairly simple ‘product and distribution’ model, but things are more complex now. The younger generation of professionals in this industry and in Woodward Nhill, and the rest of us have no choice but to see it too – if we don’t, we’re dead in the water.
Recent Royal Commissions, new/updated/increased educational requirements, and pending legislative changes do exacerbate this, but that’s all. Regardless of these issues and imposts, the way that financial planning needs to be done is different to the way it was done in the past. At Woodward Nhill we’re not quite starting with a blank sheet of paper, and we’re certainly not throwing out everything that we do and have done. We’re attempting to provide comprehensive financial planning strategies to the clients/families with whom we have a deep relationship and who respect our advice and professionalism.
From the Paragem / adviser network point of view, the task is how to best support individual firms in their quest, which for most, if not all, is similar to what we are aiming for. This means that Paragem’s training and discussions will revolve around business building and integrating good compliance procedures automatically into business functions, technology and systems that make us more effective.
Being able to bring these changes to life means that the future is very much about Financial Planning firms, not individual “agents” or advisers within an institutional brand. Not only is this type of business structure helpful for instituting the required changes for the future, but it has a deeper benefit – supporting the human element.
Paragem is conscious of the overall wellness issues surrounding businesses and their people who are under huge pressure and enduring through major upheaval. Paragem, and its member firms have started to look at the issues around this and are putting in place programs to help deal with these issues.
This view of the future, which really must be the view of the now, is where both Paragem and Woodward Nhill are driving. Everything we are doing revolves around this, as it does Paragem. The discussions within the network of advisers also revolves around this. And with these discussions come new opportunities that will ultimately benefit our clients – opportunities to work more closely with other like-minded business, increasing the power of what we can do and the knowledge and experience we can draw upon.
