Like many financial advice businesses, Innovus Advice Solutions commenced as part of an accounting firm, providing clients with the added value of financial advice solutions. The business grew and in 2012 the two businesses separated. Today, Innovus Advice Solutions continues to offer investment advice in the Fairy Meadow region.
We spoke to Paul Wright on how he manages his time to ensure that the business and staff remain fresh and focused on delivering great advice to their clients.
Tell us about the areas of financial advice you are focused on
Because we were part of an accounting firm, almost a half of our clientele have been with our business for some time. A lot of our clients are retired business owners and we focus on helping them maintain their nest egg for as long as they can – helping them to manage their drawdowns.
As such, we do a lot of advice on superannuation, including a fair amount of SMSF, although we’ve closed more SMSFs than opened in recent years.
Our focus, and where we can add the best value, is clients who are in the 43 to retirement range. We generally focus on the investment side rather than risk. If there is a risk element involved, we would usually bring in someone to assist with that area.
What is the best part about being a financial adviser?
I know it sounds trite but it’s all about helping people. I mean, it’s probably why most of us are in this industry – we can see that most people aren’t as skilled in money matters and we are in a unique situation of being able to help people make smart decisions.
And when they are making smart decisions around their money, you can see how this makes a difference in people’s lives, which is really rewarding because money has such a pervasive effect on people’s lives.
What are some of the things you do that give you stress? How do you manage that stress?
When my clients are stressed, I’m stressed. I find it difficult to turn off as my clients are my friends, so how they are feeling can really impact me.
There’s also some frustration from the amount of work that’s required to be done for something that’s relatively simple. To ease the stress, I try to be as efficient and structured in how we approach things to try to minimise frustrations.
From an industry point of view, the thing that impacts me and what I get increasingly frustrated with is that it’s become obvious that a lot of people involved in the industry, like some of the licensees, regulators and media, don’t really know what we do. There’s sometimes a perception that people think that the only thing we do is recommend investments or meet with clients. So much of what we do is about hand holding and providing a support mechanism for our clients. And this is because we are trusted advisers to our clients.
For example, I had one client who wanted to help their grandchild buy a car, so I helped them with that. And another wanted to support their ill daughter and her family. These are the things that are most valued by clients as we can offer objective advice, rather than a subjective opinion, and this is what they find valuable.
How do you manage your time to provide a balance between work and personal time that works for you?
This can be quite a challenge because I do find it hard to turn off. Overall, I think that, especially in this industry, it’s always in the back of your mind, so it does pervade everything you do.
I live quite a way from the office, so I take that time to ensure that when I get to work, I am ready for work, and vice versa. Having that clear stop at the end of the day is useful as it allows me to clear my head.
I’ve also started to go for a walk ever day at lunch. Just getting out of the office for half an hour helps me to digest what’s happened in the morning and help prepare me for the afternoon. I’ve noticed that just this simple change has helped me to be more productive in the afternoon rather than working straight through the day.
What are some of the tools you use to plan your work?
I must give big kudos to Compass. Everyone in our office lives in Compass and we use the Compass calendar as our one source of truth and all our task management, etc is done through the system. To be honest, I can’t imagine running the business without it as it allows everyone in the business to be on the same page about what is happening with the clients.
We also tend to batch things as much as possible. We review all our clients in Jan/Feb and all our pre-disclosures and terms of engagement are completed in July.
In terms of meetings, I try to have an admin person with me to take notes so that I can focus on the client and what’s going on with them. We then work on getting the minutes back to our clients within the week so everyone is across who has agreed to do what.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received??
When I was a junior accountant many years ago, a mentor of mine said ‘if you just look after the clients, the business will look after itself.’