Practices planning to grow but few intend to expand their planner numbers
Financial planning practices are keen to grow their client base in the year ahead, but few intend on boosting planner numbers to achieve this, a survey reveals.
The second Slice Financial Planning Survey, found that 96 per cent of practices planned to grow their business in 2014, with 65 per cent hoping to focus on organic growth through referrals from clients (81 per cent), from centres of influence (71 per cent), networking (48 per cent) and prospecting for new clients (23 per cent).
However, just one-in-10 practices said they would hire addition financial planners to help grow their businesses.
The survey also found that a third of financial planning groups were concerned that the Government's Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms would negatively impact on them, while 40 per cent forecast they would have a positive impact on their businesses.
While many respondents were focused on future growth only one-in-five had a comprehensive documented succession plan in place, while 56 per cent of practices stated they had either not commenced planning for succession or had just started the process, with less than a quarter of planning groups reporting that they had an informal plan.
The third Slice Survey is underway now and will look at marketing and business growth.
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