There is no doubt that Eugene Ardino is at the helm of a booming business.
As chief executive of the fifth-largest privately owned financial planning adviser network in the country, Lifespan Financial Planning, he helps provide licensee services for more than 170 advisers across 110 offices in Australia, with roughly $2 billion of funds under management.
The company, however, is still run in accordance with the kind of principles you’re more likely to see in fiercely independent small businesses: strong relationships with staff, a hands-on management team, and a point of difference from the big guys.
This is no accident, Ardino says.
“We’re not aligned with any banks and are 100 per cent privately owned,” Ardino says, clearly proud of the distinction. “We predominantly offer a fee-for-service model, with the exception of insurance products, where a commission may be declared.
“Anyone who has ever worked for us would tell you that we always put the client first.”
Ardino’s father, John Ardino, started the business in 1994, and Ardino remembers printing out compliance manuals at his dad’s office during his school holidays.
While Ardino took over from his father as chief executive a few years ago, John Ardino is still the executive chairman and active within the business, which is a huge plus for the company.
“Partly, I do think our success is because we are very much a family business,” Ardino says. “We play it straight with people and I actually don’t think we’re very good salespeople. I am a scientist and my father has an MBA and a degree in philosophy, so we’re not typical in that sense.”
While Ardino notes that communication skills and the gentle art of persuasion are all necessary – “especially when recommending a strategy to clients they don’t realise will help them” – he is allergic to sales talk.
“My father always said to never do anything that you wouldn’t be happy to see on the front page of the newspaper or, to put it in more modern terms, aired at the Hayne royal commission,” he says.
“When we’re auditing files and checking SoAs, we’re making sure that the client was given advice because it was the best strategy or product for them. That is absolutely fundamental to our reputation.”
And it’s a reputation that has continued to grow over the last 12 months.
“Even in the past few months, we have seen a real spike in enquiries from clients in the wake of the Hayne royal commission,” he says. “We’ve also had some advisers wanting to leave the big institutions and join us, but we don’t take everyone, we have to make sure they align with our values.
“We do say no to a lot of advisers.”
Those who join the team tend to stay, and that is another factor that plays into their success, Ardino says.
“We provide lots of training and personal development days for staff, and I regularly travel across the country meeting with advisers,” Ardino says. “Our advisory services manager has been with us for 15 years, while our general compliance manager has been with us for nine years, so staff turnover is low.
“The trick is to really listen to staff and find out what they’re good at and utilise those talents.”
Ardino takes great pride in the fact that his door is always open, and staff can access him for advice.
“I actually really enjoy having difficult problems lobbed at me and then trying to find a solution to that problem,” he says. “I think it is the mathematician in me.”
Name of firm: Lifespan Financial Planning
Name of licensee: Lifespan Financial Planning
Time in the industry: 11 years
Academic qualifications: bachelor’s degree in mathematics; diploma of financial planning
Professional association memberships: FPA; Lifespan is a member of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals
