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James Wortley learned a lot from his father during his formative years. His dad was a manager with BHP and, as a result, the family spent a lot of time moving between mining towns in central Queensland. His father worked long hours and was always engaged with whatever community they happened to be in at that time.

“There was definitely an impressive work ethic,” says Wortley, who is now a planner and director of Enlightened Financial Solutions. “My dad was also often the first point of contact between the community and BHP in these towns, and he would get involved in the local clubs.”

His father’s approach to work has clearly rubbed off on Wortley. Although he completed an accounting degree, he couldn’t stand the lack of human contact and wanted to find a profession more suited to his gregarious nature.

“My friend was a recruiter with NAB and she suggested I get into banking, so I applied,” Wortley says.

Worked up to banking

Wortley started as a teller with NAB but worked his way up to business banking through a series of moves to various branched across central Queensland — not dissimilar to the moves his father made when he was younger.

“It wasn’t part of a graduate program so I started at the bottom, and I wanted to learn everything,” he says.

In 1996 a friend of his got into financial planning and it occurred to Wortkley that this was the perfect area from him, and offered the ideal amalgam of detail, numbers, big picture planning, and people.

He also started his CFP during this time, reasoning that if he never worked in the industry he would at least be helping his own finances.

“I wanted to change people’s lives and really make a difference,” he says.

NAB, however, were grooming him for a management role in banking and so he left to become a financial adviser with Westpac, where he remained for nine years.

“It got to the point where I had a big client base but there was this constant push to always have new clients,” Wortley says. “Sometimes existing clients get left behind in big institutions.”

Wortley took up an offer in 2007 to purchase his clients from Westpac through a lease with Magnitude, before moving to Securitor five years later where he established Enlightened Financial Solutions.

It proved to be a good move.

Professional Practice of the Year finalist

Enlightened Financial Solutions was a finalist in the recent FPA Professional Practice of the Year Awards. Wortley’s business is turning over $1.5 million in revenue and he is on track to reach $2.5 to $3 million in the coming years.

He is not just optimistic about the future of his business, but he also has high hopes for the future of the industry.

“There are some planners out there who think we’re already a profession, but we aren’t,” he says. “I think we still have some way to go.”

So what would need to change? “Well, I think we become a profession when the consumer says we’re a profession,” Wortley says.

“People go to doctors and we know they’re a profession and that we’re getting good advice.

“That’s why all of the commissions and rebates on products need to stop across the whole industry for us to be considered a profession offering independent advice for a flat fee.”

 

Planner Profile

James Wortley

Name of firm:  Enlightened Financial Solutions.

Name of licensee: Securitor.

Years in the industry: Finance industry for 22 years.

Academic qualifications: Bachelor of Business (Accounting), Diploma of Financial Planning.

Accreditations: CFP.

Professional association memberships: Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA), Mackay Chapter Chair & SMSF Association previously SPAA.

Other memberships: Most Trusted Adviser Network, Sunsuper Advisory Panel, Rotarian, Securitor National Advisory Council.

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