Establishing an office across the road from a major Queensland hospital was a strategic move for Brisbane-based practice Complete Financial Balance.
A focus on advising clients in the medical sector is a core difference of the business, which was the inaugural winner of the Practice of the Year award at the Association of Financial Adviser’s conference earlier this month. This
“One of our keys to success has been that we’ve been able to influence the insurance companies to amend their insurance definitions based on our advice.
“We pioneered and lobbied for a number of years, to insurance companies, and a number of companies accepted our recommendations.
“We then lecture that at, say, an orthopaedic, anaesthetist or plastic surgeon’s conference, making the delegates aware of the changes in the industry,” Cafer says, adding this drives a strong stream of referrals and is largely why the practice is located opposite Royal Brisbane Hospital.
“We’ve taken the time to understand our target audience’s occupational risk.
The practice has an emphasis on life insurance advice, which Cafer estimates accounts for around 65 per cent of its financial planning revenue. “But it is getting closer to a 50-50 split,” he adds.
Remuneration model
Cafer believes a hybrid remuneration model is optimal in the provision of risk-focused advice.
“As a practice, we agree with the abolishment of upfront commissions with a move towards hybrid being more sustainable for clients, advisers and the insurance companies,” says Tapel Cafer, director of Complete Financial Balance.
“I believe it is a fairly accurate assessment of the industry and the industry does need to clean up,” he adds, when asked for his view of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s (ASIC) report on the sector.
Handed down earlier this month, the regulator’s report gave an overtly negative assessment of Australian life insurance advice.
Though it charges commissions on insurance-based advice, Complete Financial Balance has adopted a fee for service approach across other areas of advice.
“We charge a fee for service for investment and superannuation, with an on-going advice fee where required.
“On insurance we still receive commission from the insurance companies, however, over 65 per cent of our business is on either level or hybrid commission structures,” Cafer adds.
Started around 12 years ago, Complete Financial Balance currently employing five advisers, but Cafer says the practice has a controlled growth plan and a strategic five-year goal towards this.
“We would anticipate growing to six advisers within 18 months, most likely to be recruited internally, as many of our staff are on education and growth plans.
“We also have a good understanding of their education and motivators and need to make sure we are putting the right people in front of our clients,” Cafer says.
With the practice holding an Aon Hewitt Australian Financial Services (AFS) license, he says the multi-national company was particularly involved during the formative years of the business.
“They have been instrumental in the early days in helping with our vision and direction and in creating the initial master document. As time has gone on we have required less input from Aon Hewitt,” he adds.
