“My business is not trying to have an impact on the advice gap,” Steve Martin, chief executive at Smart Financial Planning, has said, but he reiterated that this does not mean it is not important.
Speaking at the CISI Financial Planning conference in Manchester today (October 16), Martin alongside Damien Rylett, partner at Saltus, discussed the importance for advisers to fully understand what it is they want their firm to achieve and to be clear about the types of relationships they want to have with clients.
Martin explained: “We're not all trying to run the same business. We're not all trying to attract the same thing. But to sit and think about the people that you have within your business at the moment and the aspirations you have - Are we actually working with the people that we want? Do our clients exhibit the characteristics you want?”
From a poll, the biggest characteristics that advisers in the room wanted from clients included being engaged, open minded, wealthy, positive, trusting and understanding.
“People talk to us a lot about the advice gap and bridging it. And there's some amazing stuff going on in that world, but my business is not trying to have any impact on the advice gap at all.
“And it doesn't mean I don't think it's important. It doesn't mean I don't think that there are other areas of the market that need to be served. It's just not the place where we are. So we're not going to try and do that,” he continued.
Advisers were also asked the type of relationship they wanted to have with clients with the majority saying a partnership - a trusting and long term one.
The room was also asked the type of service they want to provide with responses ranging from comprehensive, professional, life changing, holistic and proactive.
Martin believed there was an opportunity for advisers to think differently about the way they run their business.
“As a financial planner you are required to have technical knowledge, analytical thinking, good communication skills, good tech skills, financial management, solve problems, time management. And you need good sales skills, empathy coaching skills, negotiation skills, presentation skills, networking and relationship management skills and a very high attention to detail.
“We look back on these dozen skills that we need as a financial planner. We cannot be all of these things at one time.
"So if you're finding in your business that it's a bit harder than you thought, it might be that you don't have enough time, it's not as much fun, you're not making as much money. You feel like you're constantly just digging through mud. I'd suggest to you that part of that is that you're trying to do too many things.
“You've not recognised that a financial planners role started as just selling a life insurance policy with a one page piece of information to somebody you just met. You're still deploying the same kind of basic idea, but in the 2024 world. We're huge believers that life's for living. This should be fun,” he explained.
