Australian planners would be well served by following in the footsteps of their American colleagues who have embraced 'life planning', according to financial services mentor Warrick Pleash.
Life planning involves the merging of life coaching (ie, fitness, nutrition, relationships) and financial planning, according to Pleash. It has been gaining prominence in American planning circles for the last four to five years, he added.
The biggest challenge for people in the industry is "adviser identity", said Pleash. Planners need to be as confident about what they do and how much they charge for it as a surgeon is, he said.
Getting into life planning can help advisers with their 'value proposition' in a fee-for-service world, Pleash added.
"When you start to speak about life planning, advisers start to say: 'Oh, I see how I can charge people $5000 or $6000 dollars a year for that'," said Pleash.
"You can justify it. And it comes back to adviser identity: 'Am I worth it?'," he added.
Pleash has received the most interest about life planning from female planners and younger people in the industry.
"There are a lot of advisers in their 30s now that have still got 25 to 30 years left of their career … and are disenchanted with the industry because they feel that it's just not rewarding enough for them," he said.
Under a fee-for-service model you need other things to talk to clients about at the half-yearly or annual review – particularly when markets are down, said Pleash.
A life planner can use the annual review meeting to revisit the client's values, relationships, nutrition and goals for the future, he said.
