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As a man who admittedly lives his life through rose tinted lenses (metaphorically not actually)…
I think being a financial adviser in 2018 is a pretty fine thing to be.
If you’re doing it right you get to help empower people make the most of their lives and make better financial decisions.
If you’re doing it right you build long lasting client relationships ensuring you’re on hand to support your clients on an ongoing basis.
and
If you’re doing it right you can build businesses, earn a decent living, get to think and talk for a living and go to work every day knowing the value you add to your clients lives.
It’s clear that there are frustrations (I could give you a list but won’t) and certainly there are ‘financial advisers’ who believe profits come before people (Again, I could give you a list but won’t)…
However if you’re an independent, client focused, hard working financial planner or adviser in 2018, especially if you’ve got a few years left in the profession, life should be pretty pretty good…
However I believe that any adviser or financial planning business owner if they are aiming for their practice or business to have any sort of medium to long sustainability needs to continue to do one thing…
Improve.
I’m certainly a better adviser and definitely a better business owner since setting up my business a few years ago. I’ve learned loads, I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way and whilst we’re heading in the right direction as a business I’m hopeful that I’ll continue to learn.
However the reality is that it’s often the case you get stuck in your own ‘bubble’.
A bubble where the way your firm does things isn’t challenged or questioned. A bubble where you might think you have a good idea but haven’t got anyone to properly sense check it.
A bubble where you’re not understanding what other firms are doing well and what you can learn from them…
In the middle of last year I found myself in this position. Stuck in a bubble (again, Metaphorically not actually)
Doing pretty good but wanting to understand whether there were better ways of doing things in our business. Wanting my ideas to be challenged by people who understood our profession, didn’t work in our business and could provide a fresh perspective.
So, I set up an adviser mastermind group. A group where every couple of months where advisers get together, share ideas and best practice, politely (and with consent) share what works and what doesn’t and learn from each other…
We certainly don’t always agree (which makes for some interesting discussions!) but I can certainly say I’m a better adviser and we have a better business listening to the way other planning practices do their thing.
If you’re not part of an adviser mastermind group I’d certainly suggest you get yourself along to one…I know there are a bunch of these groups run by advisers as well as the ones run by the awesome Next Gen team and I know that Phil Calvert (who runs some brilliant online forums too) also runs face to face adviser events…
I firmly believe that good quality firms aren’t competing (especially in an environment where advice is such in demand) but also one eye on making small steps to a better business regardless of what they want to achieve…and I reckon one of doing this is getting together with a bunch of fellow advisers you can learn from, share challenges (and often get the answers you need) by surrounding yourself with a bunch of advisers who are looking to achieve the same thing…
…or maybe I’m looking at this through my rose tinted glasses?
What do you think?
P.S – We’ve got two remaining slots at our next adviser mastermind in a couple of weeks in the city of London. There’s no financial cost but you do need to come along prepared to share what works for you and what you’d like to improve. If you’d like to see what one of these events is like feel free to email Mansi@Cervellofp.co.uk to see if we’ve got any availability left for the upcoming meeting.