Produced in partnership with HUB24.
Improving productivity is a focal point in the professional advice ecosystem as the industry searches for a business model that can serve more clients while demand for advice increases.
A decrease in adviser numbers and an increase in the demand for advice as well as the emergence of new technologies such as AI has advice businesses reprioritising productivity and concentrating on processes that can add efficiency to provide immediate impact.
At a roundtable about the evolution of advice practice productivity, hosted by Professional Planner in partnership with HUB24, industry leaders from major licensees, advice practices and consulting firms, discussed the obligation of the advice profession to improve productivity levels and the ways to effectively do so.
InvestBlue managing director David Stephen told the roundtable about the firm’s “Project 300”, which utilises AI and offshoring to increase client numbers from around 180 to 220 up to 300 per adviser.
“We took capacity using just offshore associates from 180 to 220 clients per adviser,” Stephen said.
Stephen said one cohort of advisers has grown to 250 clients per adviser by improving client meeting efficiency.
“We can take about two hours off every meeting they have, one hour at the beginning, one hour at the end, with some advisors taking three hours off because they were really inefficient.”
Understanding the tangible and realistic solutions to increasing productivity levels was a key focus of the roundtable. The roundtable debated technological solutions, including the adoption of AI, the importance of collaboration within the industry as well as the importance of not losing the human element as businesses improve their productivity.
Preventing incrementalism to make real change
HUB24 Managing Director and CEO Andrew Alcock suggested advisers avoid “incrementalism” – making small changes to boost productivity that won’t drastically improve the status quo long term.
“There is a lot of opportunity for us to keep working and build productivity and get better outcomes for clients and businesses, regardless of where we have come from and the things that are in our way.”
He added: “There’s a great deal we can do now, and I think it is about acting together to do that.”
Others agreed incremental changes won’t be effective enough to improve productivity in the long term and it had been used in the sector for too long.
“We have to find a different way to change the dynamic of the system beyond incrementalism,” said Neil Younger, Chief Executive, Entireti.
“Potentially that’s where things like AI have step change capability.”
Rhombus Advisory CEO Darren Whereat cautioned advisers to be careful about the way in which they introduce new tools with the intention of increasing productivity and efficiency.
“The incremental saving of an efficiency from adopting one piece [of technology] in one area layers a burden on other areas because it doesn’t connect.”
Finding efficiency to deliver scale
Standardising technology is one solution to help boost efficiency, and consequently, productivity.
Even if a firm’s stack of technology is equipped with the best available resources, it must mesh seamlessly, or productivity will suffer.
Peter Worn, director of advice technology consultancy Finura Group, said small business owners should do extensive research on their service providers as they are not getting enough information as it stands. Small businesses need to assess and determine what platforms and tech services are best for their business.
“There is so much noise out there, there’s so many buzzwords, there’s so many different things to put in your tech stack,” Worn said.
The Financial Adviser Scale Squad founder Adele Martin echoed this view. She said there is an information “overload” and businesses need help to “actually implement” the technology that is right for them.
Opportunities and challenges
The proliferation of AI has already revolutionised technology usage, with Finura having previously flagged the potential of “AI-washing” where companies are advertising their products using AI even if it applies minimally or not at all.
Specific AI technology solution providers such as Claris and transcription services such as Otter were cited as examples that had been used by advice practices.
Martin said she has started using Claris and it has dramatically improved efficiency. “Introducing Claris has given [the advisers] five to 10 hours back a week,” she said.
An area surrounding AI discussed at the roundtable was whether clients prefer dealing with humans, computers or a hybrid of both.
Sharon McClafferty, CEO of advice business consultancy Slipstream Group, presented the concern to the table that computers could overtake human face-to-face interaction as the preferred method of receiving advice.
She provided an example of an American study from 2023 with 12,000 respondents. The people in the study spoke to both an AI psychologist and a real psychologist. After speaking to both, 25 per cent of people preferred the AI psychologist.
McClafferty said advice businesses must “be careful what we wish for” with AI usage.
“Maybe that’s the paradigm shift. The clients talk directly to AI.”
Whereat countered this view and said there will always be people who want to have human interaction.
“[Clients] want to see and touch and talk to their adviser,” Whereat said.
McClafferty acknowledged that this is sometimes the case, and it depends on who the adviser’s ideal client is and perhaps the baby boomer generation would prefer a face-to-face meeting with their adviser.
Profile Financial Services CEO Lena Ridley agreed with Whereat. She said advisers should question what the clients’ individual drivers for advice are.
“Sometimes that might be situational, but it can be equally as emotional and fear based,” Ridley said. “I think that’s where the human comes in.”
Ridley gave the example of clients coming to an adviser having been told they’re “useless with money” by abusive people in their lives and not knowing what to do.
She believed those are the clients who want to talk to a person.
“There’s all these other things that matter and so I think that humans would never go out of fashion.”
Outside of face-to-face advice, HUB24 director for strategic development Jason Entwistle said AI has the opportunity to change everything but there is still “habit changes” required.
“The highest cost resources that we’ve got are those saying, ‘isn’t this something most junior people will use or it will replace them?’ It’s us – the senior people – that must really adopt it to understand it.”
Client Portals emerge as an opportunity for advisers
Another way that advisers can utilise technology to improve productivity is via the introduction of online client portals.
Martin mentioned she is looking into the options for a client portal for onboarding and for the client experience.
There are several benefits of implementing a client portal for advisers and clients alike. But one of the advantages of client portals is it becomes a safe and digital way for clients to gain 24/7 access to view their own personal financial situation, as well as accessing educational information from their adviser.
HUB24’s Entwistle said most clients were going digital and “there’s this huge need for client experience”. He said solutions such as client portals could help deliver this experience and meet client’s expectations on service delivery and timeliness now set by businesses such as Uber.
Digital education has a role to play in productivity
Delivering education in a fast, efficient and accessible manner is an important part of enhancing productivity. By providing quality educational content, more Australians can access the information they need to help make financial decisions.
Martin said the “repetition” of giving information to clients can get “really draining”, which is why the 24/7 access via client portals becomes a gamechanger.
For example, educating clients impacts productivity as well as limits the capacity of advisers. By providing this information on a client portal, clients can access the information when they want and familiarise themselves with key topics before a client meeting.
Pitcher Partners financial adviser Jordan Kennedy said more accessible education could make a significant difference to the delivery of advice.
Collaboration is the missing part of the solution
The advice profession must come together and collaborate to solve the problems they all face was a strong theme of the discussion.
Slipstream’s McClafferty said a problem was that “guys at the top don’t have time to stop and fix the problem.”
“Unlocking that incapacity within the org chart if these small firms – if we could do that en masse then we have an industry wide solution,” McClafferty said.
HUB24’s Managing Director & CEO Andrew Alcock said the industry had a “common objective” of improving productivity which could be facilitated if it worked together.
“If we can make things easier and simpler, why wouldn’t we? That’s the cornerstone of a better life, better outcomes and better business. There are opportunities to do that as an industry.”
Alcock said that the industry is thinking about the problems, rather than setting goals to apply solutions to change the situation.
“I don’t think we think about this as an industry, as a nation, we deal with problems,” Alcock said. “But if we don’t set goals, we don’t change the outcome. We’re not mobilising towards purpose.”
Alcock advocated for industry-wide goals that advice businesses can work towards together.
