(2 December, 2004) Providing a cocktail of client services

Creating a multi-disciplinary practice puts a fence around the client, Encore group managing director Graham Peatey says.

A multi-disciplinary practice should involve providing advice on risk, superannuation and financial planning.

Advisers get a lot of referrals from accounting practices, and having all these facets in the practice enables all of them to be handled by the adviser, Peatey says.

Peatey will be facilitating a session at the FPA convention where advisers who have turned their own business into a multi-disciplinary practice will discuss how they did it and what benefits come from making the move.

Phil Robbins from Genesis Financial Partners and Chris Taylor from Taylor Bowring will talk about changing to a multi-disciplinary approach from an adviser’s perspective, while PlanTech managing director Tony Smith will address the issue from a risk perspective.

Alan Kenyon from Kenyon Prendeville will discuss how a multi-disciplinary practice helps with succession planning and adds value to the business.

While a multi-disciplinary practice may bring benefits to many dealer groups, it is not the solution for everybody.

“You can’t be all things to everybody,” Peatey says. “You are setting up a system that is delivering a value-add proposition using existing clients, it won’t work for all.”

Peatey says the change to this type of practice, however, brings benefits such as really knowing who the client is and what they are looking for from their adviser.

“It is not the type of practice that will suit the adviser that is just selling products to a client,” he says.

“It is for serious players in the financial advice industry and it does have a big input into a practice’s succession planning issues.”

Graham Peatey is facilitator of ‘The Bullring: Building a Successful Risk Practice within a Financial Planning Practice’ on Thursday December 2 at 3:15pm-4:15pm.