by Jim Stackpool | Apr 27, 2026 | Best Interests, best practice, Brand Development, Business Performance, Client Offerings, Complexity, Consequences, Consultative Approach, Delivering Value, dependency, Engagements, Financial Complexity, Productivity, Profitability, Retention, Separation of advice from product, valuable advice, value, Value Proposition, Wealth Management
Here’s a question that will tell you a lot about your firm’s positioning and pricing approach. When a qualified prospect meets your team for the first time, where do those vital initial conversations focus? If the answer is the prospect’s specific...
by Jim Stackpool | Mar 23, 2026 | AI, Brand Development, Business Performance, Business Planning, future of advice, Priorities, Wealth Management
I met Richard and Wayne a couple of weeks ago. They run a well-regarded financial advice firm in Sydney’s Hills district. Ten people. Strong reputation. Good enquiry flow. Long enough in the game to have survived a few industry upheavals. They couldn’t...
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 | Dec 22, 2025 | Best Interests, Brand Development, Business Performance, Business Planning, Career Management, Certainty Advice, Financial Legacy, Goals, Greater Good, growth, Leadership, Measures of Success, Professionalism, Wealth Management
Oli runs a good advice firm. Possibly too good. Revenues of $1.23m. He’s built a solid young team of six, including an adviser in her mid-thirties, an associate adviser who completed his professional year last year, an award-winning paraplanner/client service...
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 | Aug 24, 2023 | Advice Conversations, Advice is not a Product, advisers v distributors, Brand Development, Client Offerings, Conflict of Interest, Consequences, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Goals, Hayne Royal Commission, Leadership, Public Good, Quality Advice, Royal Commission, Serve the Greater Good, Value Proposition
Every August, I spend an evening at my old school answering questions from Year 11 students as they share their post-school career options. My sessions are generally Q&A events for kids interested in small businesses. Last week’s questions ranged from what...
