Should planners get into business advice?
Financial planners giving advice to business customers need to look beyond just dealing with their personal wealth generation but must also consider providing advice around cost savings within their clients’ businesses, according to Robbie Bennetts.
Bennetts, the former chief executive of Professional Investment Services and now the chief executive of computing and multimedia firm, onPlatinum ICT, believes that planners will not be meeting the best interests of their business clients unless they help them find cost savings within their businesses.
He said he believed the goal posts with respect to client best interests were about to move with the result that not only do planners and accountants have to think of super, life insurance, saving, retirement planning and all the asset classes, they would also have to think about clients’ business expenses.
Bennetts said he believed planners risked being exposed for not acting in the client’s best interest if they did not address such an important subject.
In doing so, he claimed that if an adviser could find a way for a business client to save up to $3,000 a year in business-related expenses, this would be tantamount to the earning power of $1 million.
“Your client will be better off, they will enjoy being told that this is equivalent to having a substantial amount of additional funds working for them and at the end of the day this will increase dynamically revenue for advice businesses and their dealer groups where involved,” Bennetts said.
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