Real IFAs and real challenges

We had a great day in Bath on Wednesday; nine IFAs in a room for six and half hours putting business change management under the microscope.

We called the session “Implementing the RDR” but frankly it was less about the RDR and more about the things that business people do to make their proposition really worthwhile.

The agenda was the agenda for change that we always use but the value was that we could challenge thinking in a no risk environment.

We ran the meeting under the Chatham House rules so I can tell you what was said but cannot attribute it to anyone.

Not once during the day did any one say “no, that’s wrong that is not the way to do it!”

Instead there was a sharing of ideas and a recognition that, “you know what there is more than one way to do this job”. After all can you imagine nine IFAs discussing pricing and not one of them directly or indirectly telling the others that they were too expensive, or indeed, too cheap?

What the group did agree with was that the very first thing any IFA or IFA firm needs to do is to sort out their proposition.

There was total agreement that a valued and valuable proposition was what was going to get the client to say yes. There was also recognition that a proposition is probably something that evolves over time and not necessarily something that we get right first times.

That said, there was agreement that the core of the proposition was such that it probably wouldn’t change.

What would be altered over time was some of the content and absolutely some of the material that was used to communicate the proposition.

There was a consensus that if the IFA had not got their proposition in place by the start of 2012 then they would find it difficult to prosper post RDR.

One of the delegates mentioned that he had attended the FSA Business Assessment Workshop (or BRAW as it will be known – why do we love acronyms so much in financial services?) and for those of you not familiar with BRAW take a trip to the FSA website and visit the small firms section.

TCF is behind us and BRAW is ahead! Anyhow this then prompted us to take a close look at systems and processes and the agreement of the group was that this was something that a firm of any size needs to address.

You could be a “one man band” and still make sure that you have designed your systems and processes and indeed documented them. Why? For the simple reason that systems and processes drive efficiency and effectiveness into a practice (and indeed drive in profit) and drive our risk.

Importantly though, systems and processes allow consistency of advice production but support bespoke outcomes for the client.

A second important differentiator between a firm and an adviser was seen as people.

We spoke about the attributes of team players. The kind of people that every firm wants who are highly teachable, have their ego under control and are emotionally secure, who are service orientated and want to deliver better service all the time to clients.

They are also likely to be imaginative and come up with ways to move the business forward.

I think we all agreed that these people were difficult to find. The one point of agreement that shone out of course was that if you are recruiting people to your business the task was to get people who were better than you, after all what is the point of getting people who are worse than you?!

Proposition, pricing, systems and processes and people and not forgetting brand all got a thorough going over so the meeting concluded with a look at marketing and the need to have a suitable marketing mix that delivers the right clients to the firm and links very closely to the firm’s proposition.

When you read the doom and gloom headlines, when you hear the “negative heads” telling you that the consumer will not have access to independent financial advice and that qualifications are not important and that clients won’t pay fees, pause to reflect on the fact that there are very many IFAs out there who are succeeding in changing their businesses for the better, they will be the beneficiaries of those who choose to self-deselect themselves from the IFA market place.