Scott Baker, director of Sunshine Coast financial planning practice Mobbs Baker Wealth won the AMP New Adviser Award earlier this month, just two years after launching the business.
A Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) and fully qualified financial planner, the efforts of Baker and his colleagues also led to the practice receiving the MP Gold Award. Only six out of AMP’s 605 practices won the annual award this year.
Mobbs Baker Wealth is a sister company to the long established accountancy firm Mobbs & Company, which has offices in the Sunshine Coast suburb of Birtinya, further south in Caboolture and in Brisbane’s West End.
With the majority of its clients coming via referrals from Mobbs & Company, Baker says it currently services between 200 and 250 people.
“We do a lot of everything, possibly more self-managed super funds (SMSFs) than other firms,” says Baker, who attributes this largely to his familiarity with their unique tax and legal obligations.
“We also provide a lot of debt advice…cashflow, budgeting, debt reduction, tax effective investments and the gearing side of things.”
He points out that an important part of their advice often stems from what it is their clients don’t ask for.
For example, if an individual approaches them for something specific such as income protection, they often also require other forms of insurance or financial advice around that. “We discuss that scope of advice, but also say ‘here’s some other options.’ A lot of clients are looking for that, they just don’t’ know how to articulate it,” Baker says.
“You see a lot of advisers just take that one-off advice opportunity and run…but we see a greater opportunity to move into that holistic space.”
Still in its formative years, the practice currently employs three authorised representatives in Baker (on the right in the picture), Fraser Martin (also pictured) and Kristy Whittington. Martin has only recently become an authorised representative, and while Kristy does hold this status, she is not yet dealing directly with customers.
“We have very clear responsibilities around our financial planning, we’ve broken it up into steps. Kristy does everything but sitting in front of clients,” Baker says. It’s paraplanning operations are currently outsourced.
Financial planning is not sales
Baker has a very clearly defined idea about what financial planning should be; what it is, and what it isn’t. He has strong views on the current debate about life insurance advice remuneration, particularly around the fear and anger of some of the more senior risk advisers.
“We built the business on the philosophy of what I found when I was at university, and as an accountant, of what financial planning should be, not what it is.
“I don’t think anyone in their altruistic or idealistic mind would ever say that’s financial planning…I don’t’ see that as holistic advice. So from them, I understand why they’re making the most noise, but it doesn’t affect me as much,” Baker says.
“If anything it gives me an advantage over the competition in the industry. It’s not advice, it’s sales. We find it as a bit of a dirty word in our business.”
As a licensee of AMP Financial Planning, he highlights the education requirements that were announced last August:“The people caught in the middle are going to be hurting then.”
Sustainable growth
Looking ahead, Baker says he is focused on gradually building the business. Mobbs Baker Wealth had three advisers between July 2014 and January 2015, but found they weren’t quite ready to grow a third planner at that point.
“What we will be doing is made sure when we employ people at that other level.. we want to build them into financial advisers. Creating that ladder so they can build into a position which they know back to front,” he says.
“You’ve got to find the model that’s right for your business and for the culture. With accounting there’s a very set model,” Baker says. For instance, in giving a guide as to how many support staff are needed relative to the number of accountants.
“It’s something I feel that the financial planning industry doesn’t have. We’ve recently found the model that seems to really work for us,” he says.
Finally, the issue of Baker’s young age comes up. Just 26 years of age, he had in the past been somewhat cautious about revealing this to clients, for fear of being seen as too young to advise them.
However, this caution has proven somewhat unfounded. Baker reveals a client recently said to him, “I already think like a 60 year old, I want someone that thinks like a 30 year old [to advise me]”.
