by Jim Stackpool | Dec 1, 2025 | Advice Clients, adviser fees, capacity to serve, Client Offerings, Fee For Service, Ideal Advice Client, Median Fees, Minimum Fees, Minimum Pricing, Pricing Advice, uplifts
Wayne is a client of mine. He has a problem with two of his clients, Tom and Jerry. Tom is paying Wayne $22,800 a year and rarely makes contact. Jerry is paying $10,780 and is constantly in contact. They have opposite problems. But they are paying for similar value....
by Jim Stackpool | Nov 3, 2025 | Advice Clients, Brand Development, Client Care, Client Offerings, Delivering Value, Niche Market
Most founders of advice dream about this. The niche that fills the new business pipeline with quality opportunities, keeps clients coming back, and doesn’t depend on one subject-matter-expert adviser to survive. Is there such a thing as the perfect advice niche? I saw...
by Jim Stackpool | Jun 19, 2024 | Activity v Productivity, Advice Clients, Advice Clients, Advice Conversations, Advice is not a Product, Certainty Advice, Client Offerings, Future of Financial Advice, Leadership, stages of growth, Successful On Purpose, Value Proposition
I’m a COBOL programmer. We moved out of our family home of 32 years last weekend, and I found an old coding template with a few punch cards that I have kept since the late 1970s. I didn’t think I was a hoarder (maybe?). It took me back to when the talent...
by Jim Stackpool | Feb 15, 2024 | Advice Clients, Advice Conversations, Advice is not a Product, advice skills, Certainty Advice, Complexity, Corporations Act, Financial Governance, Financial Paths, Future of Financial Advice, Leadership, LIfe Choices, Rugged Individualist, valuable advice, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
Laurie wants to stop and retire. Originally from New Zealand, he built a landscaping business from nothing in 1986 to the best on the north coast. He reckons he is working harder than ever. Finding and keeping staff is getting harder. Dealing with their attitudes is...
by Jim Stackpool | Oct 5, 2023 | Advice Clients, Advice is not a Product, advisers v distributors, best practice, Financial Paths, Future of Financial Advice, Rugged Individualist, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
How do advisory firms methodically create and manage deep client trust? While protecting profitability and reducing dependency, building advice platforms and skills for advice teams to build deep trust in their client relationships is the third of six principles...
by Jim Stackpool | Oct 20, 2022 | Advice Clients, Advice is not a Product, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Business Planning, future of advice, Leadership, Measures of Success, Minimum Fees, Minimum Pricing, Pricing Advice, Pricing Committees, Profitability, Quality Advice, Separation of advice from product, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
Ever over-eaten? To almost being sick? My mother, Meg, had no sympathy for such a thing. Like sunburn and talking too much, she reckoned you only had yourself to blame. That’s the tricky bit. Realising you are the problem. Similar to the feeling of over-filling an...