GoodReturns
976495050
Save Story
Fidelity Life

Practice management: From customer to client

Friday 17th of April 2009

1. Act as the third adviser
I serve as the third adviser — their CPA and attorney are typically the other two. In most situations, I serve as the quarterback of the planning process and work with the other advisers to make sure everything gets done the way the client wants. We set and provide agendas for meetings, follow up afterward with a meeting summary letter, and make sure that the items promised by the attorney, accountant or client, are done.

It is amazing that clients will spend $10,000 or even $30,000 on documents and never sign them. My goal is to make the planning process easy for the client.

2. Add a successor
One of the best things that has happened to me in my own practice is to have my son, eight-year MDRT member Keith J. Wolff join me. He is an incredible asset to me and my clients.

The dynamics of having my son in business with me really helps with our family-business clients. The father and mother can relate to me, and the kids can relate to my son. Clients often tell us how much they enjoy working with us, and that our joint practice is one of the reasons they chose us as their insurance advisers.

Want to read the full article?

Click the button below to subscribe and will have free unlimited access for a limited time to full article and all other articles on the site.

You will also be able to comment on articles on Good Returns.

Sign in
Previous Article
Latest News
FMA wants clearer fees
FMA wants clearer fees
5 min read
[Weekly Wrap] Research shows KiwiSaver is a key issue in the election; GRTV Special looks at what's on offer.
[Weekly Wrap] Research shows KiwiSaver is a key issue in the election; GRTV Special looks at what's on offer.
3 min read
Milford helps advisers tackle performance questions
Milford helps advisers tackle performance questions
3 min read
FMA settles with departed chief executive, will pay out remainder of contract
FMA settles with departed chief executive, will pay out remainder of contract
2 min read
Fidelity Life
More Read
Fidelity Life appoints Raffi Rassam as Head of Claims
Fidelity Life appoints Raffi Rassam as Head of Claims
3 min read
Fidelity Life offers premium relief to customers affected by flooding
Fidelity Life offers premium relief to customers affected by flooding
1 min read
Latest Comments
FMA wants clearer fees
@first time caller - I can see the complexity you highlight, but as above, investors should be able to see what they are paying without having to reference multiple documents. Investment admin can track and report deductions for tax, withdrawals, fees et al, would be /should be straightforward to aggregate advice fees into costs at member level... at least I hope so.
8 hours ago Goldcard
FMA wants clearer fees
@goldcard - how would you propose that a fund manager calculates the TER to include adviser fees given not all clients pay them and different advisers charge different fees, not to mention some advisors charge different fees to different clients? The advice fee gets disclosed in the adviser's disclosure statement and the statement of advice, so the client can add that to the published TER of the fund they are invested in to see how much they are paying overall.
1 day ago First time caller
FMA wants clearer fees
Schedule 4 of the FMCA regs 2014, particularly clauses 2(1) and 53(3) provide the basis for excluding individually charged advice fees from the statutory TER. This was introduced with the best of intentions, but now it is little more than an invisibility cloak for deductions from member accounts.
1 day ago Goldcard
Ideas for reforming KiwiSaver
@Ross The evidence is pretty clear on that. When advisers work in the best interests of their customers, as opposed to putting their customers into the products that pay them the most, outcomes are improved. (Makes sense doesn't it? Financial advisers go from sales people for fund companies to client fiduciaries.) It might reduce access, but does someone with $50K in a KiwiSaver really need investment 'advice'? A risk profile questionnaire or similar is a much better way to help consumers get into the right fund, i.e. move from a Balanced Fund to a Growth Fund. Why have more developed investment markets, e.g. US, UK, Canada, Aus, Netherlands etc. have banned adviser commissions from fund providers? I'd also add that there is a large group of KiwiSaver customers that are paying someone an advice fee without getting anything beyond a cursory email once a year in exchange. As @Paul says, it's 'easy money' for advisers...
5 days ago Market Commentator
Financial advice complaints down, but still some concerns, FSCL says
Aside from other questions I have on the inheritance/trustee case, what was the trustee company 'guilty' of to make them liable for the loss? Was it negligence, breach of contract (presumably not), was the trust in breach of its fiduciary duty? Where is the evidence? What is the justification? My understanding is Trusts and Trustees must act prudently and soberly in protecting a beneficiary's interests and does not extend to taking undue investment risk. How can 'advice' or investment decision be condemned simply on the outcome and with the benefit of hindsight? The benefit of hindsight can never be the determining factor in liability for inherently uncertain and unforeseeable outcomes, such as investment returns. If the trustee company had put her money in a growth fund and that had suffered losses over the period compared to a balanced or conservative fund, I have no doubt the trustee company would have been found to have taken too much risk and would again be making good the 'losses'. This cannot be fair, reasonable or just, it condemns advisers to being 'damned if they do and damned if they don't'.
5 days ago Steve Wright