Growth is a design problem, not a demand problem 

As more Australians enter retirement, the demand for financial advice grows. Despite the increasing need for advice, many practices may not be best structured to expand their capacity and grow their business.

Several advisers joined North’s Director of Growth and Wealth Distribution, Kristine Goodwin at the North26 Adviser Growth panel to discuss key strategies needed to grow and address the design problem in advisers’ capacity to take on more clients.

Advisers consistently emphasised the importance of redesigning your practice to unlock capacity, including: 

• streamlining the role of an adviser, 
• investing in the right people, and 
• utilising technology to get more time back

Redefining the adviser role

Advisers who have achieved significant growth did so by fundamentally rethinking who does what, when the team completes the work, and what an adviser's actual role should be. This means stripping back responsibilities and streamlining processes to focus more on client-facing work, rather than trying to do everything.

“I need to be more available to [the client], so therefore, I need to be less available,” said Dianne Charman, Principal Adviser of Jade Financial Group.

“That sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but what that means is that we really need to be reflecting on how and what we're doing on that growth trajectory.”

Michael Allen, Director and Principal Financial Adviser of Keystone Advice Partners, said he no longer handles compliance and allows his team to do it all.

“Make sure everybody steals all your job...just do the bits that you like,” he said.

Matt Battye, CEO and Financial Adviser of Complete Wealth, agreed, adding that having people in client meetings take notes and support with advice implementation has helped him focus more on what matters: client engagement. 

However, to do this, it’s important to have the right team.

People are the key to growth

Practices drive sustainable growth by hiring the right people.

Many advisers highlighted the importance of hiring for character over industry experience and supporting people’s professional development.

"We've hired police officers, landscapers, carpenters…my other director was a concreter," said Steve Sloane, Managing Director of Link Wealth Group.

Hiring the right people and investing in their careers and education allows growth to come naturally.

Billy Amiridis, Managing Director of 360 Financial Strategists, designed a structured associate-to-adviser mentorship model to have a scalable talent pipeline.

In Amiridis’ mentorship model, an adviser is given an associate at 150 clients. When they grow their list to 225, the client base is then split between them and the associate. The associate takes 75 clients and starts their own journey; the adviser resets to 150 and gets a new associate.

Growing talent internally also helps address the declining numbers of accredited advisers in Australia.

"We all want to grow our business and client base. But at the end of the day, we need the right people to be able to support that growth," said Ashish Siddam, Principal Adviser of Wealthy Me.

Once you have the right people in place, you need the right tools to improve efficiency.

Using technology to get time back

By utilising AI and technology to eliminate tedious tasks like note taking, advisers can be more present with clients.

When Simon Coombes, Managing Director of Direct Wealth, started using the AI FileNote part of the North Interactive Wealth Portal, he began to “enjoy seeing new clients again” because it allowed him to focus on the client conversations and removed the administrative burden following meetings. 

Charman called the AI FileNote tool a “game changer” because “it's the first file note AI system that has actually put things in the right order, [before] AI never kept up and it was rubbish what it gave me anyway.”

Since adopting AI to become more efficient, Darren James, Director of MBA Financial Strategists, advised referrals have gone up and his firm is targeting 220 plus clients per adviser, up from around 190 clients. 

“If you asked some of our advisors five years ago, would we get there? They would have said absolutely not. If you ask them today, they're now saying we can absolutely based on what tech has done.”

Getting extra time back enabled James’ advisers to have a more meaningful relationship with their existing clients and have room to help more people.

"Across the eight panels at our North 26 roadshows, one theme came through clearly - unlocking capacity in practice workflows," said Goodwin.   

We’re hearing this consistently in our conversations with advisers. And while approaches have varied, the goal has always been to free up time and focus on growth."   

Advisers using our AI FileNote solution are already seeing this in action. They’re getting time back in their diaries, creating space to build capabilities, deepen client relationships, and explore new ways to grow their businesses." 

Learn more about how the North Interactive Wealth Portal is built to support your practice growth.