Financial planners slam the brakes on business acquisition

Financial planners slam the brakes on business acquisition strategies; some way to go on succession planning; and FOFA amendments seen as positive.

The SLICE survey is conducted nationally in March, July and November to canvass the opinions of financial planners on a broad range of issues impacting their practices.

This second SLICE survey focused on:
• Business growth
• Succession planning
• The proposed FOFA amendments

Overview of the results of the SLICE survey (PDF).

Peter Dawson, the Dawson Partnership:
“It’s clear from this survey that although 96% of financial planning practices intend to grow their client base this year, this will not involve growth through mergers or acquisitions. Instead, advisers are choosing organic growth especially through referrals. This expectation underlines the need for good referral processes and excellent customer service.”

A total of 65% of respondents stated that their focus is on organic growth through referrals from clients (81%) and from centres of influence (71%), networking (48%) and prospecting for new clients (23%). Only 10% of practices intend hiring an additional financial planner to help them grow. Just 20% of respondents have a comprehensive, documented succession plan in place.

Susan Rochester, Balance at Work:
“A lot of noise has been made about succession planning in the ten years I’ve been working with financial planners. Unfortunately, the latest SLICE survey results indicate there’s still much work to be done before advisers can feel confident of a smooth exit when they’re ready to move on. This continues to be a significant issue for the profession.”