Top tips that Financial Planners
can learn from Accountants about
running their firms
Ian Pickford
Partner
Mazars LLP
Director
Mazars Financial Planning Ltd
Mazars Employee Benefits Ltd
In some ways, accountants run similar
businesses to financial planners, especially in
the new adviser charging world.
Accepting the important differences in their
professions, this session considers what we
can learn from accountants’ business
practices.
Content
• Structures, teams and people
• Succession planning
• The ‘Business Model’ and how to charge
• Professional ethos and training
• Client retention
• What do accountants do right and what to avoid
Structures, teams and people
Do you have the right people doing the right job?
Structures, teams and people
Your structure should define your team . . .
not your team define the structure
The best goalkeepers don’t usually make the
best centre forwards
Structures, teams and people
• The inverted pyramid
Number
of staff
Highest
Staff Cost
Structures, teams and people
• The ‘professional services ‘pyramid’
Highest
Staff Cost
Number
of staff
Structures, teams and people
High cost people should be undertaking
high value functions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do you have high cost staff undertaking functions that lower cost staff
could deliver?
Push as many low cost functions down the team
Do your high cost staff deliver value to the business?
Low cost staff should be highly utilised
Where do your high cost staff spend their time and what are the results?
What KPI’s run your business and how are they communicated to staff?
What does your business structure do that stops individuals maximising
their output?
Productise high frequency and low value processes
Succession Planning
What are you and your business about?
• Custodian
• Are you looking to cash in your ‘chips’
• Choice may lead to a different course of action
• Although there will be a lot of similarities:
• Build a brand
• Succession structure
• Have something to sell!!!
Succession Planning
What are you and your business about?
• Have a business that is dynamic
• Streamline your business
• Remove waste and in-efficiencies
• Maintain and demonstrate good cash flow
• Show improving profit and growth
• Be place people want to join
• Training plan and graduate/new starter scheme
Business model and how to charge
What are your KPI’s?
New works wins
Manage uninvested cash
Debt control
Billing
Identify the KPI’s that make your business work
and manage them religiously
Business model and how to charge
You need to know what it costs to deliver your
client work
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST YOU TO GIVE
ADVICE?
Do you know?
Business model and how to charge
Fees
Have a model that suits your proposition
•
•
•
•
•
•
Time cost
Fixed
% FUM
Contingency
Success
Or a combination
Business model and how to charge
VAT
Rule of thumb
Advice only VAT-able
Implementation of financial products
non VAT-able
Get professional advice on your client service
agreements and fees
Business model and how to charge
Do not start work without a service/fee
agreement in place, which states explicitly:
•
•
•
What you will do
What the client is responsible for
What the fee is and the basis of calculation
Don’t do anything outside this without amending
the fee
Business model and how to charge
Debtors
Businesses close down not because of a lack
of business but a lack of cash flow
Collect your debts
You are not a charity……. a non payer
is not a good client
Business model and how to charge
Manage your debtors
•
•
•
Have an agreed debtor policy
Don’t be afraid to go legal
Use tools to collect fees
e.g. DDM’s, platforms etc.
Professional Ethos and Training
Are you a ‘Professional Adviser’ or
‘Knowledgeable Salesman’?
Selling is at the ‘heart’ of what you do, but don’t
give away your Intellectual Property
Do the right thing………….if you do why
shouldn’t the client pay!!!
Professional Ethos and Training
Training
Past focus has been on Qualifications
New world these are a given!!!!!!!
Professional Ethos and Training
Maintenance and growth training plan for your
team which fits your business objectives
Important to train ‘soft skills’
•
•
•
•
•
Fee negotiation
Marketing
Proposition consultancy
Meeting skills
Technology
Client Retention
1. Value ‘2 way’ relationships
2. Free clients are not ‘2 way’
3. People tend to value what they pay for
4. Have service agreements and deliver to them
Client Retention
Professional Clearance
Should IFA’s operate this approach?
What do Accountants do right and
what to avoid
Right
1. Hierarchy
2. Manage utilisation and cash flow
3. Emphasis on doing the right thing
4. Recognise ‘graduate training’
What do Accountants do right and
what to avoid
Avoid
1. Can have a narrow view of the world
2. Advice ‘comfort zones’
3. Can have ‘silo’ mentality
4. Underestimate the value of soft skills training
Questions