After years in the institutional advice system and after being made redundant by Insignia-owned Bridges, Charmaine Hall decided to go her own way and start an advice business in her hometown of Wangaratta.
Hall founded Unbound Financial in October. Previously she had been a financial adviser with Commonwealth Bank, before they exited advice; and then was an adviser for Bridges before their last round of redundancies.
“I made that cut and realised the only way I can have sustainability for my clients is to go out on my own,” she tells Professional Planner.
“I’ve had a big client following as well, there’s clients that I’ve been partnering with for many years now through different stages of their life.”
While she couldn’t get in touch with those clients directly, many of them reached out after becoming aware she’d left Bridges.
“I didn’t want to go out and poach them when I can get into a lot of trouble for that but there was certainly a lot of clients that I had brought across to Bridges and then when I was no longer there, they didn’t want to continue that relationship,” she says.
Now running her own business, she says she has incorporated wealth coaching along with financial advice.
“The one thing I always realised was missing, even since when I was in Commonwealth Bank, is that you would see so many clients that they were doing most things right, but they just needed a little bit of guidance in other areas or they might have just been starting off,” she says.
“A full-fledged financial plan was probably not the way to go.”
Based in the regional town of Wangaratta, Victoria, with a population of around 30,000 a roughly three-hour drive from Melbourne, Hall serves a small, tight-knit community.
“We do have some rural stuff here but it’s a small country town at the end of the day, but having been here for the last 35 years I still have a wide reach,” she says.
“There’s a lot of industries where people do still seek financial advice. There’s a huge medical, manufacturing – all those industries. Then you’ve got your mums and dads, teachers and all that.”
Hall says the mum and dad clients available in a regional network are her preferred type, adding that supporting them gives her a greater sense of accomplishment than serving high-wealth clients.
“For me, that’s closer to my heart anyway and has been,” she says.
“They’re the ones that actually gave me the most warmth, because you have people looking to make the best of their life and when you can show them on paper [their] roadmap to success that gives me a lot of comfort as well as opposed to seeing someone who has that high net worth. They’ve already got everything in place.”
Despite the business still being in its infancy, Hall is confident she can rely on organic growth for clients.
“A lot of it is word of mouth,” she says, embracing the local community spirit by being based in a smaller town.
“I get some referrals from existing clients, local marketing [and] being involved in the local community as well to let people know what things are available. I don’t want to be the sort of adviser that’s just running ads down everyone’s throats on social media.”
