by Jim Stackpool | Mar 2, 2026 | Access Price, Activity v Productivity, Advice Clients, advice skills, adviser fees, Business Performance, Business Planning, Certainty Advice, Client Care, Client Meetings, Consequences, Consultative Approach, Delivering Value, Meetings, Mindsets, Quality Advice, strategy, Success Stories, Successful On Purpose, Transformations, Trust Skilling, valuable advice, Valuable Lessons, value, Wealth Management
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...
by Jim Stackpool | Oct 27, 2025 | Advice Conversations, Best Interests, client conversations, Trust Skilling, valuable advice, value
Beth and Gav had had enough. They are potential new advice clients of David’s advisory firm in Melbourne’s suburbs. They want to sell everything and make their tree change. Gav will find new work and leave his toxic $270k/annum job. Beth will open her dressmaking...
by Jim Stackpool | Sep 22, 2022 | Advice Conversations, Advice is not a Product, advice skills, Career Management, Certainty Advice, CERTISTICS, Consultative Approach, Delivering Value, Engagements, Financial Paths, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Meetings, Quality Advice, skills, Successful On Purpose, Trust Skilling, valuable advice, value, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
I was a COBOL programmer. Not a very good one, but that didn’t matter in the early 1980s. Back then, every Tuesday’s Australian newspaper featured a twenty-four-page IT section, of which many pages advertised programming and analyst positions available, with most from...
by Jim Stackpool | Dec 3, 2014 | Advice Clients, Client Meetings, Consultative Approach, Engagements, Meetings, Mindsets, Trust Skilling
What do you reckon? Are those first five minutes of the advice conversation between adviser and client crucial? Or is that the time for good old-fashioned rapport building? In the past ‘advisers’ (or ‘product distributors’ or ‘salespeople’) focused those first five...
by Jim Stackpool | Oct 17, 2013 | Advice Clients, Business Performance, Client Care, Client Offerings, Consultative Approach, Engagements, Trust Skilling
Assuming your advice clients are engaging for the long-term rather than short-term (and therefore you aim to earn on-going fees every year, not just the first year), then a re-think on the ‘depth’ of engagement between your firm and its advice clients might be...
by Jim Stackpool | Aug 31, 2012 | Advice Clients, Leadership, Trust Skilling
I think that from a client’s perspective, being in an advice relationship is rather like being a passenger on a ship captained by their financial adviser. When seas are calm and the sun is shining, it’s nice to enjoy a rapport with the ship’s captain, to share stories...
