The evolution of Financial Advice

Lee Robertson is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Octo Members - the first app-based private community for UK financial services professionals.

He shares his views on the evolution of advisers from transactional distributor to trusted partner, and discusses the role of trust, honesty and integrity in enabling clients to reach their long-term goals.

Long-term goals are the peak of planning - the summit you want to reach, the final destination. Whatever the rationale - whether it’s aiming for a comfortable retirement, selling a business or passing on wealth - long-term goals are a strategic endgame, reached with the help of many smaller steps.

Whatever the goal, the road to reaching goals is winding. Long-term objectives take lots of revisions to the path. Attaining these goals is about building a plan which will really help to see you through in life. In order to do that, the adviser community needs to dig deeper with clients and better-understand what they want to achieve. We need to lead with the hopes, the dreams, the ambitions and the milestones that the clients are seeking - and only then should we get to the product set that might help. It’s about understanding what clients want in the short, medium and long-term and the benefits that they are seeking.

The best way of creating a good relationship is for both parties to be open and honest. The onus is on the adviser to seek out what the client is looking to achieve, within a certain timescale. Advisers need to be scrupulously fair and honest with the client and tell it as it is - and from that will grow a deep and meaningful relationship where they discuss the things that matter which, in many ways, is not just about the money; it’s about what the money will facilitate further down the line.

The role of the adviser is changing immensely. Not so long ago, advisers were often viewed as a third-party distributor for many providers. What we are seeing now is the maturing of financial advice practices with proper financial planning, cash-flow modelling and behavioural insights built-in. Advisers are demonstrating deep-seated core beliefs of integrity - always putting the client first, while seeking to do good in their communities.

We have moved to a world where qualifications are now just a hygiene factor. There is nothing more important than developing a client relationship built on a bond of trust.

To find out more about Lee connect with him on LinkedIn.

Canada Life has researched the psychology of long-term thinking and the role of the adviser to.  Read their latest research.

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