by Karen Machovsky, Head of Advice Services, Centrepoint Alliance
Time really does seem to be speeding up in the digital age. But time is our most precious commodity and we never quite seem to have enough of it for the things that matter in our business or our personal lives.
Sometimes the harder we work, the less time we have to focus on the things that can drive our business forward. We are so busy pedalling that we have no time to see the bigger picture and find an easier route.
Good advisers know that the true value of their practice lies in the relationship they have with their clients, their ability to respond promptly and efficiently to their needs, and their ability to engage new clients.
For advisers to effectively serve the needs of their clients, meet compliance obligations and stay profitable today, individual advice practices need to harness the power of technology and the scale and expertise of other specialist organisations.
Having access to affordable, appropriately skilled people who can be trusted to perform specific functions can reduce the time it takes to conduct business and free up advisers for more client time. The potential cost savings are a bonus.
Hiring people is costly and comes with HR, legal and payroll responsibilities, not to mention office costs and IT requirements. It can cost up to double their salary by the time they have their feet under the desk.
While good staff can be the cornerstone of your business and even your differentiator, in many cases hiring one or more does not make sense in light of the alternatives, particularly for non-client facing work.
That's why we are launching a package of virtual service solutions to enable our advisers to benefit from greater scale and specialist expertise so they can focus on looking after their clients.
This includes para-planning, para-lending, life insurance health screening, and a range of administrative support options, from outsourcing particular functions to ongoing dedicated staff support.
The range of support solutions services being offered are designed to make it easier, more economical and more efficient for advisers to do business.
This enables advice practices to scale up as they grow, without putting strain on their business or compromising their client relationships. You can plug in the services your need and leave the ones you don’t.
The breadth of tasks and duties which the dedicated staff member can complete is almost unlimited – essentially if there is a process you need completed which can be broken down into a checklist or easy-to-follow steps, then you can effectively outsource it.
We've conducted comprehensive due diligence on a range of service providers and trialled them with advisers, with very positive results. We will also conduct continuous quality and service level monitoring to ensure they maintain their standards. This means advisers benefit from our scale and oversight in sourcing these services.
So if you're always running out of time for the important things, take the time out of the things that that are draining your most valuable resource.
