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 supply could not meet demand, with every Tuesday’s Australian newspaper thick and full of vacancies for computer programmers.
It was fun being a programmer back in the 1980s.
For a while.
Then, the IT platforms converged, and the PC industry emerged.
Is this history repeating itself now, considering the high demand for financial adviser roles, or is it different today?
TECH STACKS
There is a particular demand that does match today’s need for financial advisers.
The demand for better advice tech stacks.
The tech issues affecting advice firms are ubiquitous and growing.
The topics vary from privacy, open data, platform integration, cybercrime, fraud, data ransom, AI, off-shore data warehousing, off-site team data control, transitioning to portals, disaster recovery, and data liability.
Bad tech can hobble any firm.
Good tech is ever-changing and requires an increasing annual budget.
Great tech (e.g. ChatGPT, Google Search) is rare.
For most advice firms’ clients, tech isn’t their reason for engaging.
But it might be their reason not to re-engage.
This is significant because nothing scares advisers more than the potential of disengaging clients.
This helps drive the growing tech stack spending.
What else promises to grow returns from each advisory team member and sound risk management to protect against disengaging clients?
Maybe a trip back to the future?
CHOICES
Why do most advisers become advisers?
To build something of value for possible eventual sale?
Of course.
But doesn’t that apply to many firms, not only advisory firms?
So, what drives most advisers to become advisers?
As I wrote recently, most advisers become advisers to help others achieve more.
This focus – i.e. help others – powered advisers through their early incompetent (!) days of advising to their present levels of experience, expertise, confidence and opportunity.
Thanks to their advice, their clients have become more confident, capable, and certain about their future.
Thanks to their advice, they became more successful.
Unfortunately, success is more complex to manage than failure.
Building a successful firm that delivers great advice is different to delivering great advice.
This is the tough, self-imposed choice facing every successful adviser.
Is the future about becoming better at tech?
Or is their future about becoming better at advice?
Pick one; otherwise, you won’t do well at both.
I enjoyed computer programming, the lifestyle, the rewarding projects and the opportunities.
But I enjoyed the control of my destiny more.
What do you reckon?
Photo credit: Canva_Traffic_Light_Ahead_MAEhyZbq1Tk
ABOUT JIM STACKPOOL
Since 1989, Jim has influenced, coached, and consulted financial advice and accounting firms across Australia. His training firm, Certainty Advice Group, skills comprehensive advisory teams to price and deliver valuable, methodical, non-person-dependent advice relationships with their clients. He has built a collaborative community of firms aligned to his firm’s comprehensive advice model – Certainty Advice – Australia’s only Certification Mark accredited by ACCC and IP Australia for impartial financial advice. He presents at conferences, has judged professional advice awards, written industry white papers, chaired practice management curriculum for tertiary institutions, and authored four books on financial advice – his latest being What Price Value.