by Jim Stackpool | Mar 9, 2026 | Best Interests, best practice, Brand Development, Business Performance, Business Planning, Capacity-To-Serve, Consultative Approach, dependency, Goals, Greater Good, growth, Growth Stress, Hiring advisers, Hiring Team Members, Leadership, Mindsets, Ongoing Relationships, Planning, Priorities, Professionalism, recruiting, Talent, Wealth Management, worth
Five years ago, Mark, a Canberra-based adviser, transformed his proposition and pricing. He doubled his average client fees from $6,500 to $13,500. He didn’t do this by engaging more of a high-net-worth market. His niche is mums and dads running their own small...
by Jim Stackpool | Jan 5, 2026 | Activity v Productivity, best practice, Business Performance, Client Care, Delivering Value, dependency, growth, Priorities, Success Stories, Transformative Advice, valuable advice, Valuable Lessons, value, Wealth Management
Reine Clemow runs a comprehensive advice firm in Southport. His average client fee used to be $2,400. Today it’s $12,000. New clients average $20,000. He hasn’t significantly changed his ideal client profile. And he hasn’t attended a new-client meeting in...
by Jim Stackpool | Dec 15, 2025 | best practice, Business Performance, Business Planning, Capacity-To-Serve, Certainty Advice, Goals, growth, Growth Stress
Many advisers will plan 2026 the same way they planned 2025. Look at last year’s numbers. Add 15%. Call it growth. That’s not planning. That’s more of the same. Busier growth, not better growth. Better growth for 2026 starts with answering one...
by Jim Stackpool | Nov 17, 2025 | adviser fees, Best Interests, best practice, cost to serve, Fee For Service, Minimum Fees, Minimum Pricing, Pricing Advice, Pricing Committees, Profitability, Wealth Management, worth
Many years ago, I conducted a series of pricing workshops around the country for principals from advice firms aligned with Deutsche Bank. The bank was ‘franchising’ their wealth advisers, helping them take steps from being representatives to becoming...
by Jim Stackpool | Nov 14, 2024 | advice skills, Best Interests, best practice, Business Performance, Client Care, Client Meetings, Collaboration, Meetings, skills, strategy, Uncategorized, Valuable Lessons
A 24-year-old adviser in one of our Certainty Advice firms, engaged a $12,000 new advice client last week. The striking aspect of this engagement was that the 24-year-old adviser is still in her professional year. Technically unqualified? Yes. Compliant? Yes....
by Jim Stackpool | Jul 18, 2024 | Advice Conversations, Advice is not a Product, Best Interests, best practice, Certainty Advice, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Measures of Success, Mindsets, perfectionism, Professionalism, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
I have a weird memory. Particularly for far too many old TV ads. Joe the Gadget man. You need Palmolive Gold. Mrs Marsh’s Chalk. Louie the Fly. It gets weirder. Sometimes, my brain replays, re-visualising an old commercial during random conversations. This happened...
