The principals at one of our comprehensive advice firms based in Redcliffe had a problem.
They were charging $15,000 for new clients.
Their four associate advisers were signing new clients closer to $6,000-$8,000 for their new clients.
Clients would ask: “Will I be working with you or one of your associates?”
Translation: “I’ll pay $15,000 for you, but not for them.”
Classic expert dependency trap.
The more time, money and effort they were making building their team was not reducing their dependency; their profits were not growing anywhere near as quickly as their revenue, as their associates were getting busier on low-revenue work, less able to help them with higher revenue advice.
THE TRADITIONAL SOLUTION DOESN’T WORK
For advice firms whose propositions are being the investment expert, the insurance expert, or the tax expert, the dependency trap is predictable.
But it doesn’t have to be for comprehensive advice teams.
The problems start when firms try to solve their expert dependency by training their junior and associate advisers primarily to become better technical experts.
More investment knowledge. Deeper tax expertise. Advanced estate planning skills. New qualifications as an aged care specialist.
The logic seems sound: if juniors become as technically capable as seniors, clients will pay senior fees. This works for firms delivering technical propositions, but it works significantly less for firms delivering comprehensive advice propositions.
Positioning up-and-coming advisers as “technical experts in training,” they’ll always be lesser versions of the senior adviser.
If clients are engaging purely for technical expertise, they want the BEST technical expert.
That’s the principal, not the associate.
FOURTEEN MONTHS AGO
An advice team based in Redcliffe joined the Certainty Advice program in January 2025.
They had four associates. All were technically capable. All were undercharging.
We didn’t train them to be better technical advisers.
We trained them to be better experts at delivering the value their clients seek.
More valuable advisers.
THE DIFFERENCE
A technical expert focuses on finding the best investment strategy, the optimal superannuation structure, and the most tax-effective solution.
This expertise is crucial; however, it is not the only advice expertise required.
A value expert focuses on what the client actually wants to achieve with those technical solutions.
Technical expertise is critical.
It’s an important part of comprehensive value.
But it’s not the only thing clients pay for.
They also pay for:
- Achieving the outcomes they value
- Progressing along unique paths for their circumstances, situations, and behaviours
- Overcoming the complexities in their lives
- Impartial relationships serving their best interests that fill them with confidence.
HOW WE TRAINED THE REDCLIFFE TEAM
The Certainty Advice Discovery conversation has nine frameworks.
Not scripts. Not a rigid process.
Frameworks that act as vital components of every client’s unique value map – the Certainty Map™.
We trained the whole Redcliffe team – principals, associates, and junior support team members – in all nine frameworks.
Adding our Certainty Advice methods to their existing Discovery approach ensured every client discovery provided a similar experience, proposition, and minimum access pricing regardless of which team member led the conversation.
THE CHAIR SYSTEM
Initially, principals performed “first chair” in meetings with associates in active “second chair.”
This is vital.
If you let one adviser build the entire relationship while juniors take notes quietly, you’re building dependency on that individual adviser.
The client sees the senior as the provider of value.
This creates dependency.
This also positions the value as something the principal provides rather than better positioned as something the advice team helps the client achieve.
Every team member in a Certainty Advice Discovery Meeting performs actively.
No quiet note-takers.
Why?
First: They’re building an expert team, not a team of experts. Different model. Different outcomes. Value is based upon what a client experiences rather than what an adviser delivers.
Second: While senior team members have the greatest technical skills, some junior team members – particularly those with exceptional emotional intelligence – can have significant value skills that can influence discovery conversations as significantly as technical expertise.
THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Importantly, as we do for every one of our clients, we review every Certainty Discovery conversation the Redcliffe team had with their prospects.
Listened to their meetings. Reviewed how they positioned themselves. Provided specific feedback on how to better articulate all the elements of comprehensive advice.
Not “here’s how to explain superannuation better.”
But “here’s where you focused on technical options before understanding what the detailed and unique value the client seeks.”
THE RESULTS (14 MONTHS LATER)
Three of the four Redcliffe associates now charge the same minimum access fee as the principals: $12,000.
Some are engaging new clients at $16,000.
The principals’ previous ongoing access fee? $6,000.
More importantly, clients are satisfied.
They’re not asking “which adviser will I work with?”
They’re engaging the whole team.
THE ONE WHO’S STRUGGLING
One of the Redcliffe four associates is struggling.
He is the most technically skilled of the four associates. Very good at finding optimal technical solutions. But he struggles with the shift to positioning the client’s value, rather than his technical value.
He probes for technical details, dives into discussions about options, investment preferences, superannuation structures, and tax strategies. He prefers to postpone the conversations about the detailed value each client is seeking until he has a thorough understanding on strategies he will recommend.
He’s more comfortable, skilled, and practised at technical conversations rather than value conversations.
Result?
He’s signed a few new clients for around $8,000 when they should have been $12,000 cases.
He’s lost more prospects than the other three associates.
He finds it hard to integrate the new approach involving Certainty Advice.
But some of his junior support team members – particularly two late-twenties female paraplanners with significant emotional intelligence – are now showing off how much presence and empathy they have in Discovery Meetings.
They just engage better, more naturally, more valuably on topics of deep value to prospects than their technically-focused associate team member.
When discovering what is of value to prospects, value expertise matters more than technical expertise.
When devising strategies for clients to best achieve what they value, technical expertise matters more.
The technical expertise comes later – after the client has agreed to pay for access to the team.
WHAT’S CHANGED
More clients are being engaged by associates at $12,000+ minimums.
Junior team members are taking more active roles in meetings.
The team is genuinely enjoying the advice role more.
Their career paths are no longer predicted on how technically skilled they become.
They can build value through emotional intelligence, client understanding, and articulation of pathways – not just through technical credentials.
And the principals?
They can see that as associates build these skills, they’ll be freed up to attend fewer meetings.
Not because they’re delegating to “juniors who handle the lower-value work.”
But because they’ve built an expert team where any member can engage clients at premium fees.
If you’re building a comprehensive advice team, ensure you are building an expert team rather than a team of experts.
Jim
Photo Credit: canva.com/photos/MAG6RFNDdAI