Daily planner payments helping to grow Synchron

Paying planner entitlements from fund managers and life insurers on a daily basis is proving a successful method of attracting new planners to dealer group Synchron, especially since the onset of the global financial crisis.

Synchron director Paul Riegelhuth said the strategy is one of the low cost dealer group's key points of difference from other dealer groups in attracting new planners.

"We are finding that it is working well in getting new planners over the line, especially since cash flow is king in today's economy."

It also helps to ensure member planners do not have to work to deadlines in their dealings with clients in order to get paid by their dealer group.

"When a planner is under pressure to complete work to get paid, that's when mistakes happen that can have significant adverse consequences."

Riegelhuth said he was not aware of any dealer groups that pay on a daily basis, with "most paying planners on a monthly or half monthly basis".

On the practice management side, he said the strategy was helping Synchron's workflow because instead of having one or two huge payment runs a month, the dealer group has 20 small ones.

"Human nature being what it is, we believe that if we paid planners on a half-monthly or monthly basis, we would leave everything to the last moment and put ourselves at risk of making mistakes.

"And there are two cardinal mistakes a dealer group can make with planners: one is don't pay them correctly and the other is don't pay them at all," he said.