Why I use North with Lance Rowlands of Wealth Directions Financial Services

In the latest instalment of our ‘Why I use North’ interview series with leading advisers, we spoke with Lance Rowlands, founder of Wealth Directions Financial Services.

Lance has 23 years’ experience in financial planning. When he’s not delivering retirement solutions for clients, he’s enjoying everything that Kawana Island on the Sunshine Coast has to offer with his wife and two boys.

What was your first experience with North?

I first started using North back in 2009. At the time, North had a guaranteed offering, and still does for many users. Clients were looking for security amid the global financial crisis, and North’s offering was among the very few that could offer a guaranteed outcome.

What aspects of North have made the biggest difference to your business?

Using the North platform makes our business more efficient.

Features like the Record of Advice (ROA) are embedded so seamlessly into the platform and saves us time by giving clients a complete overview of their investment holdings.

What are the top reasons you use North?

1. Value: North is a great value for money platform, a crucial cost saving for our business that we can pass onto our clients and keep fees lower.
2. Flexibility: It allows us to manage different investment strategies for a wide range of clients, taking into account risk management and personal circumstances, as well as their goals in retirement.
3. Innovative income streams: Our clients find comfort in North’s high-rate¹, market-linked income streams for the duration of their retirement. 

What's been your best client outcome with North?

We’ve been using MyNorth Lifetime Super for clients of all age groups, not just those nearing retirement. Recently, we advised a gentleman in his 40s on what his retirement might look like.

Given he’s going to be drawing on more capital prior to age pension eligibility, we used MyNorth Lifetime Super to ensure he can maintain a healthier capital position and enjoy better cash flow to fund his retirement.

What's North’s biggest timesaver?

Other than features like the ROA, it’s North’s consistent innovation which saves our business time and guarantees it maintains a market leading position.

With new legislation and rules routinely coming into effect, North does a fantastic job of embedding updates into the platform, meaning our business is aware of changes right from the start.

It also means we can keep our clients informed of any changes to their portfolios, and they value that transparency and information flow.

How does North’s support team help you get things done?

We really value the North support team’s response times. We’re able to pick up the phone and solve often complex client issues with little to no downtime for our business.

When we were implementing a number of recontribution strategies leading up to the end of the financial year, North’s support team worked with us in an exceptionally efficient manner to get those solutions in place for our clients quickly and effectively.

What advice would you give to newly qualified advisers using North?

Our clients value transparency and flow of information. And with the North platform, they can see what transactions have been completed and what their portfolio is worth.

My advice would be to educate clients on how best to use the North platform, and ensure they have a solid understanding of your strategy and why it’s been implemented. That transparency can be invaluable for clients and is important to maintaining long term relationships.