Building an outstanding financial planning practice boils down to two, simple (but not easy) ideas - finding new people to work with, and making the process of working together efficient, effective and excellent. 

Jordan and Nathan have discussed the second part of that equation - now it's for the first part: finding new people to work with. 

In this week's episode, they talk about the importance of knowing your desired audience, defining who you're going to help and finding the right approach and channel for you and the business you want to build. 

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

Don't you hate it when you are really getting into a 2000's sitcom, and the writers go on leave mid season, so the producers peice together a clip episode of throw back moments from throughout the show? Well, I hope not, because that's what we have gone and done. With a full year of episodes under our belt, Nathan thought it would be great look glance in the rear window and boy did he regret it. 

Turns out peicing together an episode of great moments from a C grade podcast was more work than he anticipated. 

Please enjoy this flashback of pitches for sponsorship, and guests appearances and if you really enjoyed them, go back and listen to the old episodes. 

Enjoy!

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

How do you feel about the process you follow when you're bringing on clients?

Are you one of those unicorns we hear about that has every, single element nailed down so the whole thing is tight as a drum?

Or are you like the rest of us - it's fine. I mean, it could be better, but it could be worse. 

Right?

Right...?

Well, in this week's episode, Nathan and Jordan unpack the steps they follow when they start workign with a client. The good, the bad and the ugly. 

(Of the process. Not the clients).

From why Nathan's initial 15 minute call goes longer than most sitcom episodes, to Jordan's irritated bewilderment at how some firms seem to be using paraplanners, this episode explores the whole process from initial contact through to advice delivery. 

And they even stop talking about the ins and outs of yet another arcane, strikingly specific part of the fun and games that comes with being an adviser long enough to share a moment of complete honesty - which was a nice way to wrap up recording for the year. 

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

Advisers are, famously, an empathetic bunch of people. 

So, let's imagine a situation our clients could very possibly find themselves in this festive season. 

Christmas lunch with the extended family. The matriarch of the family is at the head of the table, with the various siblings, cousins, in-laws and hangers on scattered around the festive tablecloth and grossly optimistic piles of food. 

Wine's flowing, as are beers and sparkling apple juice for the rest of us. 

Between polishing off the third plate and the regret that follows, your client trundles up to Grandma, sits down and asks how she's been.

And in the space of 15 minutes, has the startling realisation that something is wrong with her 88 year old Grandma. 

Nothing drastic - but a fuzziness and repetitiveness that wasn't there last Christmas. 

Called away to help clear the table, or join the conga line of dishwashers, your client is left wondering - what should I do now?

Well, this conversation is all about exploring the ways we can help our clients answer that very question. 

Not to say we have all the answers - today's episode (and all our favourite ones, if we're honest) - is all about exploring the topic, testing the waters, pushing the boundaries. Licking our finger and sticking it in the air to see if maybe, this is the thing that could help.

It's not about us telling people what we do - but hopefully it's about helping people think about what they would do to help their clients with their own challenging, Christmas conversations. 

PS: Editorial decisions have been made about the first 2 minutes of this week's episode, and we're in complete agreement that it was the right call to leave it in. 

PPS: Maybe don't listen to this one with the kids in the car - not those first 2 minutes anyway. 

Following what was a steep learning curve for both of our hosts, in this episode Jordan and Nathan reflect on each episode and wrap up their thoughts on best practice for PY. 

They cover

• The importance of communication and structure for a PY. 
• The cost/investment in the PY for a business
• Staging PYs for greater skill and advice capability in your business
• How they would roll out a PY

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

As part of preparing for this PY series, Nathan and Jordan put together a survey and asked people to provide some feedback on their experience of the PY. 

Employees. Business owners. Partners. Associates. Anybody with an opinion on the subject. 

In an outcome both surprising and gratifying for Nathan and Jordan, people actually responded!

And their answers are thoughtful, useful, insightful and, frankly, wonderful. 

In this week's episode, Jordan and Nathan discuss the responses and identify some of the common themes people are finding through the experience. 

They also spend a lot of time marvelling at the importance of the relationship between the adviser and their employer - and the level of trust and commitment required from all involved. 

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

This week, Jordan and Nathan speak with Danielle Waugh - Advice Education Manager from TAL's Risk Academy - about:

• TAL's commitment and contribution to the PY process
• Insights she's found from working with multiple practices, across multiple licensees
• Why some of the terminology can be a little bit misleading

This is a really interesting discussion because Danielle does a great job in providing a macro, functional view of the on-the-ground reality of the PY across the profession. 

Additional Information:

TAL's PY Manager and Support Info

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

This episode of our Professional Year 'mini-series' is all about that pathway from university to the world of advice - and where the PY piece fits into that entire puzzle. 

Nathan and Jordan are joined by Alisdair Barr of Striver, a key player in the recruitment, training and retention of new talent in advice. 

Alisdair takes us through:

• Their ambitious goal of helping find the next 5,000 advisers over the next 10 years
• The absolutely critical role academics play in showing students the joy, satisfaction and meaning that can come from a career in financial advice (and how they help shepherd them out of those other, less appealing roles!).
• The huge gap we have in our demographic profile - not just from a lack of people coming into the profession, but also after the multitude of departures.
• The possibilities that can come by opening up our perspective on who can contribute roles into the entire advisory, employment ecosystem.
• And, in news totally gobsmacking for Jordan and Nathan, just how old the youngest PY participant was. 

It's a fascinating contribution to our PY series and should you have any questions for Alisdair at all, you can reach him via:

Striver's website

LinkedIn

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

In this week's episode, Jordan and Nathan are continuing their exploration of the Professional Year.

They're joined by Phil Thompson from Skye Wealth this week, who with his characteristic openness and generosity, shares the structure they've built to help people grow through the PY. 

Phil explains:

• The structure they've built to bring on, develop and grow people through the process.
• Why they don't rush into putting someone into the PY.
• Why the legacy impact of what he's doing doesn't really concern him.
• How the investment they've made in growth and leadership across the business has driven their structured approach to the PY. 
• How Skye's recently announced BHAG is feeding their commitment to growth.
• Why Jordan's wrong about the shortage of ethical dilemmas in advice. 

Keep listening to the end to hear Jordan's new favourite risk-profile based insult - and how his big mouth has made getting sponsorship for their upcoming in-person event an absolute no-go. 

If you'd like to find out more about how Phil and the team at Skye are growing their team, you can reach out to them here:

Their website

Phil's LinkedIn

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143. 

So, what's the deal with this professional year thing? How's it work, why do we have it, what's wrong with it - what's right with it?

In this week's quick episode, Jordan and Nathan introduce the framework for their upcoming series on the Professional Year (PY). 

Specifically, why they're doing this. Why bother dedicating multiple episodes to something that - at this stage at least - has no bearing on their own businesses?

The simple answer is - to address some of the pockets of ambiguity still undermining the entire process. So we're introducing what we're doing, why we're doing and how we're planning on doing it. 

Plus, extra quasi-conflict towards the end of the episode while Nathan and Jordan race down yet another rabbit hole. Hint - how many times can they say dilemma?

(Oh, and also keep an ear out for the inclusion of the excellent word 'skedaddle' in this episode too).

Our Previous PY Episode (S2E5):

Spotify

Apple

Nathan:

[email protected]

www.nathanfradley.com.au

Jordan:

[email protected]

www.planningsolo.com.au

LinkedIn: 

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn

The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143.