Having worked with hundreds of financial planning practices across Australia, I’ve been lucky enough to have a kind of backstage view of the industry.

From solo advisers to huge practices, it’s clear that the desire to grow is strong. The Advisely Growth Survey revealed that over 80% of advisers are looking to bring in new clients this year, but nearly half of them admitted they’re struggling to make it happen. Most industries would probably say the same, but their issue would be marketing or lead generation.

With our industry, however, it’s often less obvious barriers that are holding practices back.

One of the most consistent challenges I hear about is the sheer weight of compliance. Advisers genuinely want to help more people, but the regulatory framework in Australia has become incredibly complex. Between ASIC, DBFO and the legacy of FASEA, it’s hard for practices to keep up. The rules change frequently, interpretations vary and the consequences of a misstep are significant.

For some, the effort it takes just to onboard a new client has become so administratively taxing that they’ve paused their marketing altogether. It’s not that demand is lacking; it’s that the backend work required is daunting.

Financial pressure adds another layer. The cost of delivering advice – from wages and software subscriptions to compliance overheads – continues to rise, but many practices haven’t revisited their pricing models in years.

Some are hesitant to raise fees, worried about the effect and reaction on clients, while others simply haven’t tracked their profitability closely enough to know if expanding would actually help or hurt.

Growth often seems like the solution to these issues. But without a clear understanding of margins or capacity, expansion becomes risky.

Finding and retaining quality staff – whether paraplanners, CSOs or junior advisers – seems to be the biggest issue our advisers raise to us. The flow-on effects of regulatory fatigue have driven many advisers out of the industry, and smaller practices can’t always compete with larger ones when it comes to salary or structured career progression.

This creates bottlenecks. Advisers want to grow their client base, but they’re reluctant to push for growth if it means burning out the existing team. I’ve seen practices hold off on marketing campaigns purely because they’re unsure how they’d service the influx of clients.

And then there’s the issue of operational infrastructure. Many practices, especially smaller ones, are still relying on manual or obsolete processes; systems that worked fine when the business was smaller start to fall apart under the pressure of growth.

CRMs are often underused, task management becomes chaotic and reporting turns into a weekly scramble. Often, everything still hinges on the principal – and when they’re busy or away, things stall. Practices that invest in scalable infrastructure tend to weather growth more smoothly, but it’s a big ask when margins are already tight.

An adviser said to me recently that he needs a financial adviser for his practice. He loves seeing clients and helping them get their financial position in order, but his own planning – business forecasting, budgeting, scenario modelling – feels reactive, not proactive. He just couldn’t get his head into it.

This isn’t uncommon: I’ve met practices that know their revenue figures down to the cent but still feel unsure as to whether they can afford to hire, or how much they’re paying for their software. When planning principles are applied internally with the same rigour as client work, decisions become clearer and more confident.

The big takeaway is that growing a financial planning practice isn’t just about increasing client numbers. It’s about maturing the business structurally, operationally and strategically. Growth doesn’t happen just because the client numbers are increasing but because the right foundations are laid and the practice evolves to support that ambition.

I’ve seen firsthand that when practices invest in systems, define their messaging, support their staff and treat their own planning as seriously as they do their clients’, the growth doesn’t just follow – it sticks.

July 30th, 2025

Published on Advisely

If you’ve seen one article on outsourcing tips, you’ve seen them all.

I know this because I’ve read way too many – and written a few myself! I can promise you, though, this article isn’t that. Instead, I want to put forward the real questions you should ask when considering a new outsourcing solution.

First, let’s state the obvious – when a practice reaches out to us, there are a few common reasons. Typically, these are:

• Cost efficiency: Outsourced paraplanners often offer a more cost-effective solution compared to hiring full-time, in-house staff.You aren’t paying someone when you don’t have work for them or having to spend money training more staff when another leaves.
• Time savings: By allocating tasks like research, strategy development and advice documentation writing to outsourced paraplanners, advisers can save significant time, allowing them to focus on their client relationships.
• Flexibility: Outsourcing provides the flexibility to scale resources up or down based on business needs, ensuring that support is available during busy periods without long-term commitments.
• Access to expertise: Many outsourcing providers offer specialized knowledge and experience, ensuring that businesses receive high-quality and compliant advice documentation.

These are all solid reasons to start outsourcing, but what keeps businesses coming back and staying with their outsourcing partners for the long haul?

Seamless handover process

The ease of the handover process is a big one. Some outsourcers have five-page requests they need completed before they will start working on a file; others have new programs and platforms the practice needs to join before they can submit a new request.

Advisers have enough hoops to jump through these days, and getting a file off your desk and into the hands of the paraplanner should not have so many barriers. The ideal outsourcing provider works seamlessly within your system, not the other way around.

If the handover process is smooth, businesses are more likely to stay put and avoid the hassle of transitions.

Managing key person risk

Key person risk is another crucial factor. Having a dedicated paraplanner is great, but what happens when they’re sick, on extended leave or they resign? A reliable outsourcing provider ensures that there is always someone available to keep things running smoothly, mitigating the risks associated with losing a key team member.

A quality outsourcer will ensure there is a practice profile with the key things to note for each practice, as well as a second or third paraplanner who meets the practice early in the relationship. This avoids the risk (perceived or real) of the ‘main’ paraplanner going away and ensures the adviser isn’t explaining their process or thoughts over and over again.

Not just a data-in, data-out service

Businesses appreciate paraplanners who go beyond just data entry. A good paraplanner adds value by questioning and enhancing the advice provided. This strategy development approach helps improve the quality of advice and fosters a deeper level of trust between the business and the outsourcing provider.

Knowing that issues will be picked up, helpful strategies will be flagged and they have a sounding board available means advisers can have a 10-minute discussion and leave the file in the hands of the paraplanner to produce the advice.

Outsourcing paraplanners also often act as a gatekeeper for compliance requirements. Their specialized knowledge in areas like compliance helps ensure that all documentation meets regulatory standards, reducing the risk during audits and providing peace of mind to businesses.

Support during busy seasons

During peak times, having additional support is crucial. Outsourced paraplanners provide essential support during advice backlogs and busy seasons, ensuring that advice is delivered promptly and efficiently.

Having a team large enough and reliable enough to maintain a consistent turnaround time is invaluable. Anyone can have a five-day turnaround time in quiet periods, but outsourcers who aren’t prepared easily get pushed out to four-plus weeks during the busier months!

When timeframes blow out, the practice pays for this in the form of less satisfied clients, longer wait-times for advice fees and workflow bottlenecks. Businesses stay with providers who stand behind their timeframe with a service guarantee. Reliability in meeting deadlines ensures client satisfaction and smooth operations.

The final word

Outsourcing can be a game-changer for your business, but it’s not just about finding the cheapest option or the one that promises the quickest turnaround. It’s about finding a provider that integrates seamlessly into your system, offers a reliable and inquisitive paraplanner, and can meet your workflow as it fluctuates.

When you’re next considering an outsourcing partner, remember to look beyond the surface and ask the questions that truly matter. It’s not just about looking for any old outsourcer; it’s about finding an extension to your team that will stick with you through thick and thin.

February 26th, 2025

Published on Advisely

If you’ve been reading the headlines over the past 18 months – from QAR reforms to AI advancements – you might get the impression that it’s all doom and gloom for the future of paraplanning.

For example, you probably heard that advice document lengths were going to be significantly reduced and could soon be completed by anyone with basic financial knowledge and a laptop. Cue the December release by the Government and it appears the SOA is here to stay.

So: for now, at least, there won’t be any significant reduction to the SOA’s length or the requirements within.

Was this a massive relief for paraplanners? Not really. Are our fingers crossed that the SOA continues to be more convoluted and wordier than necessary? Definitely not. We’ve seen many changes to the industry and SOA standards over the years; the experience and knowledge required has remained consistently high throughout that time.

This is because paraplanning goes far beyond basic data entry. We don’t just tick a few boxes and edit a Word document; anyone who does is probably not going to survive in the new world of advice creation. Paraplanners possess a wealth of knowledge about financial products, compliance requirements and industry best practice that advisers are now tapping into.

A broader view

External paraplanners are especially well-placed to assist these advisers because we see a wide range of clients, strategies, products and processes that many practices don’t encounter often – purely due to the sheer volume of work we complete.

As the focus shifts from the advice document to the comprehensive client file, the demand for experienced paraplanner services is growing significantly. Any paraplanner will tell you that they have never been busier.

Why? Because advisers are leaning on our profession more and more, not simply for advice document creation but for product research, comparisons, strategy discussions and ensuring that the entire file (not just the advice document) is compliant. The level of support we can provide here allows the adviser to focus on client meetings.

Strategy-formulating discussions are the important first step. They enable advisers to hand over their client information and discuss the possible strategies they’re considering. The paraplanner can then complete the financial modelling which helps identify any potential additional strategies that may benefit the client and were missed on the first pass.

Assessing tax benefits or Centrelink entitlements can be near-impossible without completing the modelling. Once the overall strategy has been confirmed with the adviser, the paraplanner can then research product comparisons and prepare alternative strategies.

An evolving profession

Over the longer-term, a paraplanner who’s across the client’s situation (and has written SOAs for that client in the past) can facilitate more efficient and timely delivery of ongoing advice and future strategies. Not needing to provide a background to the client every time a new piece of advice is required saves the adviser time and ensures the advice is consistent and reflective of any previous goals the client has expressed.

The benefits of the paraplanning function, then, will persist even if advice documents do end up being trimmed in future legislation. In fact, as I said above, the demand for experienced paraplanners is stronger than ever.

Of course, the financial services industry is constantly evolving – and paraplanning is no exception. We must continue adapting to new legislation and technology as it arrives and adjust our service offering to stay ahead of the curve.

At this stage, though, I think it’s fair to say that the reports of paraplanning’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

April 15th, 2024

Published on Advisely

There’s a lot that goes into what was once quite a straightforward adviser-client relationship – booking client appointments, ongoing fee arrangements, research, advice creation and file completion, to name a few.

It’s nearly impossible for an adviser to handle all of these tasks by themselves, which is why many of them are struggling with the capacity to onboard new clients. Those advisers who do manage these tasks on their own will often admit they have no time to look for or even accept new business.

In fact, some advisers find themselves so busy with ongoing client requirements that they barely have any time to service their existing clients to the best of their abilities.

This is where the “team” needs to step in to ensure the client experience remains at a high standard, regardless of how busy the adviser is. The team includes the receptionist, client service officers, paraplanners and implementation staff. Everyone on the team needs to know exactly what the client experience should look like and buy into this experience; you want everyone working towards the same outcomes.

Equally important is that each team member is aware of their responsibilities and knows precisely where they need to “step in” during the process. Too much time is wasted trying to find where the ball was dropped or deciding who should have completed the task; when there is ownership of a role as well as an outcome, everyone will end up moving in the same direction.

Practices also need to have a centralised “source of truth”: a place where workflow is tracked and client information stored. There are too many times when a client calls and needs to speak to their adviser urgently, only for it to be a question around a lodgement form or change of pension payment.

To address this problem, one practice we work with has a “cheat sheet” on the front page of their CRM that lists the client’s kids, hobbies, drink of choice as well as the last completed implementation task and advice document. When the client realises that everyone in the team knows them and their situation, they’re happy to have a chat, ask the question to whoever picks up the phone and trust that they’re getting the same answer they would if they were speaking to their adviser.

Of course, this kind of arrangement requires trust. The adviser needs to have faith that their team has the knowledge, competence and follow-through to ensure that things will run smoothly and the client will have the best possible outcome.

Open and honest dialogue is paramount here – are people in the right role and working to their strengths? When something hasn’t gone to plan, is there a process to follow and is it picked up and resolved in a timely manner?

The individuals within the team need to be trained regularly to ensure they understand the practice and compliance requirements and then empowered to make decisions based on this knowledge. The work of building client relationships can then be spread across the entire team – rather than just the lone adviser.

A problem shared is a problem halved, after all.

March 15, 2024

Published on Advisely

There is one thing I can say for sure: if an adviser doesn’t have trust in their support team, their efficiency levels will drop.

In my 13 years in the industry, I have worked in varying roles across different practices and licenses, and there is one thing I can say for sure: if an adviser doesn’t have trust in their support team, their efficiency levels will drop.

This goes for internal and outsourced paraplanning and administrative support. The number of advisers I meet who have stopped looking for new business, or won’t book in clients for presentations at the fact-finding stage, is staggering. They don’t know when they will be able to present the advice and don’t have trust in their team to produce an advice document in a reasonable time frame.

Of course, there are multiple reasons why timelines remain a massive issue for our industry. But there are other underlying factors that can slow down the conversion of client information and strategy into a concise and compliant advice document – and they all start with how an adviser communicates with their team.

Fortunately, you can start taking steps to address these issues right now. Here are my top three suggestions:

1. Meet face to face (sort of) – You need to be able to see each other. This can be conducted in person or via videoconferencing, but it’s important to (literally) put a face to a name.

It’s all too common in our industry to have emailed and spoken to people for years without any clue who they are or what they look like; they’re basically just an email signature or a voice on the end of the phone. When you meet someone properly, it creates more trust.

It doesn’t matter whether you talk about your weekend or the weather – the important thing is that you’re breaking the ice and creating a humanised relationship. It also means that both sides are more comfortable picking up the phone when there is a query or issue.

This doesn’t mean that every strategy discussion going forward needs to be “face-to-face”, but we all know nothing gets lost in translation as quickly as an email.

2. Make your expectations clear – We are all the most logical people and our process is the one that makes the most sense, right? Well, my company currently works with over 100 advisers and I can confirm that all of their logic and processes vary – often to a significant degree.

Make even your simplest expectations as clear as possible: time frames, how you prefer to communicate, your investment ethos, what you want the advice document to highlight to the clients and so on. No matter how experienced your paraplanner is, they can’t read minds.

Having a “general assumptions” document can be helpful for ensuring that whoever works with you knows your expectations and preferences. This also helps everyone avoid pitfalls such as the adviser picking up that the surplus cashflow has been modelled as super contributions instead of being spent – right in the middle of a client presentation.

The same rules apply to the paraplanner: make sure your advisers know what information you need upfront. You can spend hours on emails and phone calls clarifying conflicting information or unclear strategies, or you can make your checklist clear from the outset.

Making note of the typical areas missed (and tailoring this to the specific adviser’s problem areas) can be helpful for both parties. No one wants a delayed advice process. If the advisers know what to provide, they most likely will!

3. Feedback feedback feedback – Face-to-face conversations have been had, checklists filled and standard modelling assumptions provided. We should be good to go, right?

Well, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will trust and efficiency. Feedback from the very start is necessary to make sure the relationship and quality of advice gets where it needs to be, as quickly as possible. What did you like/dislike about the advice document? How did you find the process from start to finish?

Processes and advice documents can be tweaked and adjusted (within reason) to ensure a smooth process for everyone. Telling your paraplanner what the issues were before they become real frustrations is key.

The paraplanner also needs to provide feedback on areas that caused delays or processes that could be streamlined. As outsourced paraplanners, we work across so many different practices and they are always happy to hear what other practices are doing that works. Don’t be nervous to give that feedback to advisers – it helps everyone be more efficient.

Ensure you are open and honest about where you stand and what you require. Good relationships between advisers and paraplanners are essential – especially when things go wrong. As the saying goes, communication is key.

October 3oth, 2023

Published on Advisely