There’s nowhere to hide when working as a financial planner in a regional centre versus a capital city, says the director of Newcastle-based practice JSA Financial Planning.
Andrew Shakespeare refers to the relative anonymity of being just one business among many that can be a feature for some working in big cities. This is something he observed while working in a previous consulting role with MLC between 2005 and 2008.
“It enabled me to see advice firms in so many different capital cities. The difference I found with those regional centres versus the central business districts, whether in Esperance Western Australia, or in Melbourne, Sydney or Newcastle, the whole relationship aspect,” Shakespeare says.
While not suggesting there are higher rates of non-compliance in the city versus regional areas, he refers to what some may call ‘small town syndrome’. This is a phenomenon driven by the smaller populations and closer social and business networks found in many regional towns.
“In Sydney, to a degree, bad advisers can get away with bad advice. Whereas in Newcastle, if you’re a dodgy practitioner, you can get found out pretty quickly, you can only run yourself so far.
“That word of mouth marketing is so powerful in a place like Newcastle…you don’t need to chase business if you’ve got a good name in town.
“I suspect it’s hard to build those connections across a really broad area [in Sydney] and you’ve got to work it, to a certain degree…[but] it’s two or three degrees of separation in a place like Newcastle,” he adds
JSA Group
The company was founded in1976 by Jeff Shakespeare, Andrew’s father. The parent company, JSA Group now holds an Australian Financial Services license from Clearview, following its acquisition of their previous licensee Matrix Planning Solutions.
“If we were bought by a CBA or a OnePath or someone similar, then potentially yes, we’d be more dictated to.
“But what’s happened with the acquisition is we’ve largely doubled the number of Clearview advisers, and it seems like more of a cultural fit.”
Shakespeare says there’s real excitement about what the change means. “At our Monday morning meeting, we were discussing changes we want to make, and some of the things in the firm we can now do.
“Clearview just gives us so many extra resources to work with, such as XPLAN, human resources, legal and so many other things that Matrix just didn’t’ have the scale
“I think at the moment we’ve got the best of both worlds, more resources, but not being totally dictated to.”
Business model
Shakespeare describes the business structure as being “like a solicitors practice, where you’ve got specialists in key areas”.
Within the company there are specialist advisers focusing on aged care, investment and risk research, along with the full array of advice.
While they’re all fully qualified to advise in each of the areas, this provides them with a specific resource for detailed questions.
For instance, he says “we all can write risk, but if we have a question, we’ve always got a go to person in the firm.”
Shakespeare says his father generally has a better relationship with the aged care providers around the region.
“There is also an ex PricewaterhouseCoopers guy in the practice who is very good with the detailed inquiries,” he adds.
JSA Financial Planning operates on a fee for service model for investment and superannuation products, only charging commissions on life insurance.
Structure
It includes what Shakespeare describes as buyers advocate and property consulting division, JSA Property.
He refers to an example of a married couple moving into aged care, which requires the sale of their home. “They have someone who can help them handle this, can help them co-list at another agent and make sure they’re not taken advantage of.”
Alongside this is JSA Accounting & Tax, JSA Corporate Super and JSA Salary Packaging, the latter handling novated leases and channel mortgages.
Client mix
“I find a lot of my clients, probably 50 to 60 per cent, are in that 45 years-plus age bracket.
“We’ve all got our own client bases. But I’ve found over the years, I tend to still target that 45-plus bracket, even though I look like I’m 13 years old,” he laughs.
He believes people in that bracket are tried and tested either handling their own financial affairs, or they respect advice.
“Some Generation X and Generation Y clients don’t fully appreciate how valuable our advice can be, and unfortunately, there may have to be some mistakes that happen along the way – and then they listen to you a lot more,” says Shakespeare.
He says he has found it more rewarding working with clients aged 45 and over, with more strategic options ahead of them, for example, whether to pay down debt, salary sacrifice.
“They’re generally a lot more fun from a strategic sense for me. I love getting my teeth into something juicy and helping them out with something that’s ahead of them.”
