Single-adviser FAPs need to ‘reinvent the way they give advice’

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The managing director of Strategi Compliance is calling on advisers to use technology to reinvent themselves, in order for the single adviser to remain relevant.

Thursday, May 13th 2021, 6:44AM 1 Comment

by Daniel Smith

Managing director of Strategi Group, David Greenslade, spoke to Good Returns about the simple tech advisers could employ to assist their transition into the new regime.

“A lot of advisers are looking at the new regime fearfully, thinking that it requires more compliance stuff on top of what they are already doing.

“What we are saying is that what advisers really need to [do] is reinvent the way they give advice.”

Greenslade believes the voices that are reading the last rites for single adviser FAPs have got it wrong.

“You hear people saying that the single adviser FAP is doomed, but I don’t think that is the case.

“Single advisers have amazing relationships with their clients, but what they need to do is become more innovative in the way they operate.”

For Greenslade these innovations take the form of existing technology to make the advice process more efficient.

“We have found that those advisers who have been utilising technology have been getting better client engagement, their conversion ratios are better, better feedback, and the advisers were a heck of a lot more efficient.

“When we started looking at what these more tech savvy advisers were doing, one of the commonalities was the way the advisers were using their mobile phones.”

Most advisers use a mobile phone when going about their business, but for Greenslade a key difference was in the way tech-savvy advisers used their devices.

“They were taking pictures of their client and uploading the picture on the CRM. They would ask their client to explain their goals in their own words and then record that.

“When visiting clients they would take photos of their client’s interests and hobbies, and build those into their statements of advice which would bring an emotional buy-in from their clients.

“They would use their phones to record file notes rather than breaking up a consultation by having to write or type things.

“There was a multitude of things like that advisers [are] able to do to improve efficiency.”

By Strategi’s calculations, utilising technology in this way can save an adviser over $2,000 a year through increased time and efficiency.

But more than the money, the use of technology makes sure the adviser is on the right side of the new record keeping standards.

“The record keeping obligations aren’t prescriptive in the way that you have to maintain your records, other than stating that you have to have the right info and it has to be easily retrievable. Digital technology, particularly mobile phones, can make the whole process a lot easier.”

For advisers looking to reinvent themselves through technology, Greenslade says there are four steps they need to take.

1. Have sufficient scale to employ a digital native as a part of your team.
2. Engage with the client to find out how they want to be communicated with.
3. Ask yourself whether you have the right hardware, software, and cyber security processes as a part of your business. If you haven’t then you are taking on bigger risk.
4. Ask yourself how you can work within the new principles of the FSLAA regime to meet your clients’ needs and to improve efficiency.

“If advisers are worried that the new regime is going to make them less efficient than before, then they need to invest in efficiency. This is an opportunity for advisers to do better.”

Tags: compliance David Greenslade FSLAA Strategi

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