Financial planning businesses may suffer a 20 per cent fall in income this year unless they acquire new clients or increase fees and provide a service that matches the rise, a leading practice management professional has said.
Business Health director Terry Bell said there were two major issues impacting on the income streams of planners.
“One of the big issues is the de-accumulation of assets. As clients are getting older they’re starting to withdraw money from the market and combined with the market falling around 10 per cent it means that planners are potentially suffering a 20 per cent decrease in income,” Bell said.
“The market will go down but unless you are acquiring new assets/clients then your income will go down.
“Or you can increase fees and provide a service commensurate with that offering.
“There’s a need for genuine help. It’s a great challenge for a lot of people.”
He said the planning market would be shaken up under current conditions.
“Now’s the time to stand up and deliver,” he said.
Business Health has around 40,000 client surveys on its database and has found for most clients the hot issue is how to market to new clients in the target market.
People do not know how to ask for referrals, and when organising client functions people needed to be focused on their targets, Bell said.
Bell has just returned from the United States, where the issues planners faced were the same as those faced in Australia, he said.
“Some of the US advisers are good, but at the end of the day an average adviser here is one of five in a small office and it’s the same as in the US,” he said.
“They need all the help they can get.”
