Your LifeTalk Insider #78

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Welcome back…

From LifeTalk and Adviser Growth Community this week:

Thanks to everyone who has subscribed to LifeTalk Insider - Let’s get stuck in…

Jane and 56 others: If I hear someone say you can only recommend on the rules current at the time I may scream - where does it say that anywhere - surely this is actually a very individual decision, based on balance of probabilities and debate with client and their concerns/expectation.

Happy to be proved wrong but these sweeping statements turns into myth quite quickly? Click…

Simon and 51 others: I am about to recommend AJ Bell for the first time. The main reasons for the recommendation are (a) cost (b) profitability of platform. Before I go ahead and push the button are there any 'cons' that the hive is aware? Click…

Jane and 46 others: Managed to convince parents to gift £2m to son- so what to do with it now?

Would you start company and build property portfolio; gift as much as possible to trust; invest for growth? Income? He wants ideas but wants to recognise his parents wishes to make it the family legacy that they have run out of time to do properly.

Some must stay in cash as gift may well fail- as I said too late really and parents don’t trust insurance providers/complex investments/trusts is not helping and don’t want to make lazy generations. Just wondered how others would start with this very clean sheet? Generally? Click…

Darren and 7 others: Morning squad, new adviser here. Vast majority of my meetings are done virtually via teams. I’ve tried to search on here for an answer but not 100% sure.

Can providers for both pensions and protection accept digital signatures for letter of authority? I’ve signed up to Origo but not sure if the signature you need to upload has to be wet or if most providers are happy with e-sign via adobe etc? Is there a list that confirms what each provider accepts?

Proving a pain for clients to print, sign and scan back. Click…

LifeTalk member and 47 others: I was wondering if I gain some expertise/ opinions on my case below. Please be gentle with me as I’m a newbie advisor.

I have a client who is 86yrs old. Copus mentus, and healthy no ailments. Unhappy with her returns on her savings account currently 1%. Wants more growth- has circa £350K in current account and saver. No gifts, doesn’t want to gift any monies during her lifetime to her family. I have met with her children and they support investment.

I am looking for more info on the £100k investment we are making for her (didn’t want to invest the whole amount). £20K stocks and shares ISA. £80k investment bond. Her estate’s value is currently £700K. CIA investment- I am worried about this (OEIC to isa each year due to her age).

I am looking for some advice on bond vs CIA? Click…

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LIfeTalk member and 30 others: I am a Chartered Financial Planner but have a decision to make.

A high net worth individual (father in law was a client) has approached me to employ my services to complete her retirement planning. She has £500k in cash to invest, pension funds of similar and a lovely DB benefit to come in 5 years. She has not asked me to look at pension funding as she has finished work but I may look at funding husbands as he is 10 years younger but still working. She just wants to invest the cash and use pensions to draw an income until the DB starts.

The issue is I suspect she has overfunded her annual allowances (due to tapering) but she has not asked me to look at this. Her previous accountant was clueless and just submitted her tax returns and said he didn’t advise on pensions so ignored that bit. What would you do? I can do all the work as I have full earnings history going back and I know the scheme pays rules or do I just complete the parts she has asked me to?

She won’t thank me for helping her pay the correct tax (if I find she has not) and I bet lots of this is not declared as people don’t know the rules as it’s so complex. If I do the work and find she has a tax bill that’s a different story as I cannot assist her evading tax.

Without working out the numbers I don’t know what the situation is but she is definitely below the normal allowances. Click…

LifeTalk member and 28 others: Myself and a colleague have been looking at buying a client bank jointly (50/50 split) for a while now to have an initial base of clients to build some traction from and we've been introduced to a retiring IFA looking to sell. I'll give you the top line figures of the total bank:

• 119 families

• £18.5m AUM

• Ongoing charges differ but average at 0.76%

• Total fee income £131k with average fee income per family of £1110.

• Top 10 clients pay £41,034 in fees and 71/119 clients earn less than £1110

• Average age 71

Retiring adviser is looking for around 3x ongoing income. To fund this I would be taking on a loan and have my portion of fees to pay away to the principal firm. Factoring these in and assuming I took on half the bank and I lost 10% of clients at the start, I would take home £29k gross. My colleague and director of the firm think this is a good opportunity and it has worked well for the director as he did a similar thing a few years ago and managed to build referrals/find new business opportunities from a client bank he purchased.

Personally I am starting to build some self-generated traction but there's still a long way to go. I have my own opinions but wanted to see what the group thinks or if anyone has bought a bank and how that worked out for them? Any input is much appreciated! Click…

LifeTalk member and 35 others: I switched networks 16 months ago. At my last network I received a loan payment for first 12 months and the agreement was that I would owe any shortfall from the income I produced if I left within a 3yr period. Due to various reasons, I decided to leave, and my production hadn't been great that year.

I never heard a single word from them and didn't receive an exit interview etc. Last week, after 16 months, I got a lawyers letter saying they want £25k within 30 days, which came as a bolt out of the blue.

Has anyone been in this situation? I've tried a few employment lawyers to check the contract and figures etc but nobody seems willing or able to look at it. Hoping to get some recommendations on what steps I should take before contacting them, and hopefully someone i can contact to look over it for me. Click…

Simon and 11 others: Financial Planning Reports - I have been including specific provider and fund recommendations within the reports I produce for clients (£1500-£2500 depending on complexity). Not all of the clients go ahead with the implementation which is billed at 1%. I would appreciate the input of what others are doing. I suspect some of my more financially literate clients are being tempted to implement the recommendations themselves. Should my planning reports be more generic and not mention specific platforms or funds, perhaps just the charges and benefits. This would reduce the temptation for the client to implement themselves. Thanks and have missed something.

In this day and age surely we need to adapt. Is it a no no or is anyone out there doing it? (I work with a network so may be their rules). Click…

POLL: To what extent are you considering ways to work with a broader range of clients through education, courses and coaching-style models etc.? Click…

Nathan and 15 others: If you could start with a blank sheet from a tech stack perspective, what would you go for? I'm thinking platform, CRM, client portal, compliance and cashlow. From a directly authorised perspective? Doesn't have to be a bias to what you already use I'm thinking what you feel would be the perfect set up for your business. Interested in people's thoughts on this. Whether that's what links harmoniously or just best of breed in each category. Click…

Howard and 30 others: Forgive me if this has been addressed: is anyone using AI specifically for annual suitability reports, please? If so; which are the best, please? Click…

Phil and 97 others: Huge numbers of financial advisers are now using LinkedIn. Not surprising because it's a powerhouse of opportunity if you use it right. However this year there have been a few changes to the algorithm, which means that many posts are not getting the attention they could be.

I've put together 20 tips in a short guide on what you should be looking to focus on in 2025. If you would like a copy just let me know - email [email protected]

Posts from the Adviser Growth Community:

Create an action plan with AI

Try this great prompt with ChatGPT to help maximise your skills, knowledge and ideas and turn them into an action plan: Click…

If your financial advice business is the answer, what's the question?

How clients find you - your expertise, your services, your brand is evolving rapidly. It’s no longer just about search. It’s about conversation.

The way people discover solutions is shifting thanks to conversational AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Instead of searching Google for (say) “financial adviser near me”, people now use much more natural language like “I’ve inherited money - what’s the best way to secure my family’s future?”

This isn’t just a tweak to how people search. It’s a… Read more…

Adviser tech - are we any more efficient?

Thanks to that nice Mr Kitces, this is the January 2025 tech 'solutions' map in the US. And pretty terrifying it is too.

But are advisers actually any more productive? As someone who started meeting financial advisers in the late 1970s when NONE of this existed, I might argue that many are not.

The most exciting piece of tech back then was the fax machine...u might find useful. Example, notes, what is a niche, how to get known in a niche, content ideas etc.

Hope you'll find it useful. Click…

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