Amid a name change, XY Adviser is looking at recruiting accountants and nurses into financial advice as one of the many projects it plans to undertake while it seeks global growth.
This is just one of the many plans of the recently renamed adviser platform which now goes by Ensombl (pronounced as ensemble).
Ensombl chief executive Clayton Daniel says the spelling was a necessary unique identifier to gain global trademarks and web addresses.
“The name Ensombl means people at their mastery working together to create something they can’t by themselves – that’s true for advisers and the corporate side of the industry,” Daniel says.
With the name change settled, one of the projects the group is working on currently is attempting to reach into the accounting and nursing professions to recruit talent.
“Financial planning is about being good with numbers and people,” Daniel says. “With accountants you teach them to be good with people; with nurses you teach them to be good with numbers.
“We think we can reach into those professions and pluck people out and pull them across into financial advice.”
Daniel pointed to AMP Horizons as a good example of licensee creating a training ground and he wanted Ensombl to help do that for the industry.
“We could do this for all licensees, in the same way we’re putting on all licensee [professional development] days,” Daniel says, referring to the PD days held online by the firm, the most recent being last Thursday.
What’s in a name?
The XY Adviser name was established to connect the learning experiences of advisers from generation X and Y, but Daniel was never a huge fan of the name.
“We never intended to grow,” Daniel says. “Then Emily (Jenkins nee Blanch, head of community) happened and the company took off. All of a sudden we needed a proper name.
“I tried to rename it a couple of times and Emily thought they were all horrible ideas. We ended up working with a branding agency.”
Jenkins, who recently returned from a trip to Silicon Valley to discuss community building also went through a name change of her own after getting married a couple of months ago, says the name change is a big deal because of how much is connected to the XY Adviser name.
“It’s not just a name,” Jenkins says. “We couldn’t pick a name for the sake of picking a name.”
There were three elements to check off: trademarks and global domain names were the first two, but mostly importantly it needed to resonate and represent the company.
“People wear XY on their sleeve,” Jenkins says. “We needed something to represent the collective intelligence and collaboration and Ensombl really represented that.”
Daniel appreciates that the name change will take time for it to be fully embraced in the market.
“It took us eight years to have one in four advisers on the XY Platform,” Daniel says.
“I hope it doesn’t take another eight years to get the next quarter onto Ensombl. Hopefully after 12 months people will be familiar with the name.”
Maintaining roots
Daniel says despite the growth and influence the platform has in the industry, he sees the company’s direction leaning towards the education space.
“We’re super pivoting into continuous professional development,” Daniel says.
“If you go back many years, we originally tried to do it and it didn’t work. It’s only because Emily spends at least one hour a week speaking with financial planners and asking them about they want that we were confident this time around that we’re addressing problems far more accurately.”
Education, after all, is part of the roots of the company that started in an attempt to develop the career of young advisers.
“I don’t see why we can’t move into other territories…potentially maybe into qualifications as well,” Daniel says.
The qualification process is at “step one” as Daniel described it and it’s not something that will happen soon.
“When something to starts to make sense we make it happen,” Daniel says. “I’m not questioning whether we do it or not, I’m confident we will. It’s just a matter of when because we’re expanding quite quickly as well.”
