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The M&G Wealth Financial Adviser Academy - Tom Hegarty · Financial Planner Life Podcast

0:04
SPEAKER_01: Hi, and welcome to the Financial Planner Life Podcast, where we talk to professionals at varying stages in their career about what it's like working in the wonderful world of financial planning and financial advice.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: This podcast is proudly sponsored by Recruit UK, a recruitment consultancy specifically focused on the financial services.
0:25
SPEAKER_01: They have a new specialism, recruiting, within the financial planning industry, so check out their website for the latest job opportunities, hints and tips, and blog articles.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Financial Planner Life podcast.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: It's Sam Oakes, and today I am joined by Tom Hegerty, Partnership Director of MNG Wealth.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Tom is joining us today to discuss the MNG Wealth Financial Advisor Academy.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: And we're working in partnership with their academy to help them attract second careerists and graduates to this wonderful profession of financial planning.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: This is a fantastic interview.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: It's packed full of useful information for anyone who would like to become a financial planner.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: Tom explains why there is a need for a financial planner academy and how MG can support you during and after the academy process to be the best financial planner.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: We also look at who the ideal candidates are.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: And we're very honest about the realistic earnings in the first three years of your new career as a financial planner with MG wealth.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever thought about being a financial planner, then this is the episode that you need to listen to.
1:43
SPEAKER_01: If you would like to apply for this academy, check out the show notes, click on the hyperlink, and go through to the Financial Planner Life Academy's page where you can find further information about the academy and a link to submit your interest in the vacancy.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: If you come through that route, I will guarantee you an interview.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the podcast.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Financial Planner Life Podcast.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: And I'm Sam Oakes.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: And today I'm joined by Tom Heggerty of MG Wealth, and we're going to be talking about their brand new Wealth Academy, attracting new financial planners to the profession, because that's what we are all about.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: And today we're doing it face to face in London in some beautiful offices in the city.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: And I'm really pleased today to introduce Tom to you.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: Tom, thanks for joining me today on the podcast.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: How are you?
2:29
SPEAKER_01: Very good.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Good to meet you in person as well, Sam.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: We've been speaking on the telephone a lot.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we've been doing some work with you on the academy.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think it's a fantastic option out there within the financial planning space.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: I speak to multiple companies, been doing it for 15 years.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: And it's one of the academies that I truly believe is solving a problem.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: And we will get onto that.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: And the proof is in the pudding because we've got a fair few people that we've put in contact with you that are very happy with the process.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: And most importantly, have signed up on the dot in line and joining the academy.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: So today is all about finding out what the academy is about and um who is it suitable for, and really what the process of it, what's the journey like for somebody coming into the profession without any experience to end up being a financial advisor and the timescales attached to it.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: So, Tom, let's crack off with just who are you?
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm uh Tom Hegerty, I'm partnership director for MG Wealth Advice.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: I've got around 20, 25 years experience with working in the financial advice sector specifically.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was originally started out as a financial advisor back in the late 90s, and then I moved into working in the provider world, working for a few product providers, um, and then working with businesses that support financial advisors uh and help them run their businesses.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: So I've always operated with financial advisors.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: More recently, um, I've been a lot more involved in bringing new people into the sector, and I'm sure we'll come on to it, but you know, there is definitely a huge opportunity, very exciting opportunity for people to join the profession, which is obviously a great career, and I'm a big fan of.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: So it's safe to say you've got a really good understanding of how a financial planning business operates.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to think so.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: Probably seen the good, the bad, the ugly.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: And that experience has drawn you in to be a part of the academy to ensure that the academy is matching up.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: So really what's been letting down the profession over the over the years is how to attract the next generation of talent.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I mean I've been exp I've had experience in running an academy previously, um, actually on the apprenticeship side and government apprenticeships, um, and yeah, very much involved in those sorts of things.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: So understand what it what the skills are, what the competencies are, what the attributes are for somebody to become a successful advisor.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully, you know, that would bring those skills, that those that bit of experience and skill to uh the MG Wealth Advice Academy and how we've created that.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, great stuff.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: Could you just tell us a little bit about MNG Wealth?
4:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, who are they, how do they start, what's it all about?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: So, well, MNG uh PLC is a global savings and investment business.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, MNG Wealth is the uh is the is the wealth management part of that business.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, and MNG Wealth Advice is a subset of MNG Wealth now, and that uh is is really about the financial planning part of the business.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, we have a few different um models within uh MNG Wealth Advice, and that actually, by the way, formally has kind of grown or evolved out of the old Prudential Assurance Final Advice, you know, traditional advisor people know of man from the prew and that sort of thing uh over the years.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: So there's 170 years of heritage and experience there as well.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: So backed by a massive company, Prudential's a huge name.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of the next generation might not know who the man from the prew is.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: No, I do.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: Um we used to do a lot of work with Prudential, actually.
5:53
SPEAKER_01: So I'm in quite in a bit of detail about their financial planning side.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: So the academy then, okay, first off, why is there, do you think, a need for a good quality academy within the financial planning profession?
6:04
SPEAKER_01: Why is it there?
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Good question.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the um the number of financial advisors in the UK has dropped over the last few decades.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, I won't go into the reasons for that, but there are lots of reasons.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we are now at a point where the number of financial advisors is actually a fraction of what it was, you know, 20, 30, 40 years ago.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: So um what the problem that that creates is access to advice, and consumers need access to advice.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are lots of situations around tax planning and pension planning and investment savings for uh customers who need help with their finances, um managing their finances.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: So I guess the challenge now is that because of the fewer number of financial advisors, and actually each financial advisor can only have the capacity to look after a certain number of clients, maybe I don't know, 200 clients, 150 clients, um, it means that you know it's very difficult for customers to find financial advice.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: So the solution to that, there's a few solutions.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: One of them is to grow the number of advisors that practice in the in the sector.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: Another one is to make uh you know technology improvements, to make efficiencies so each advisor can look after more clients than they currently look after.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that there's possibly another few uh mechanisms around you know uh those those things as well.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: So a bit of a combination of technology and financial advice, uh, while technology obviously is improving quite massively at the moment as well.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: So the way the academy is there quite simply to bring in new financial advisors.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: What I didn't mention actually there as well is that there is an aging demographic within the advised population, um, depending on which reports you look at.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: It's probably somewhere in the mid-50s, uh, age-wise.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, so you can imagine over the next maybe 10 years, there's going to be an outflux of advisors leaving and retiring from the profession.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: So we need to replenish the numbers.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's really important that we get the numbers through.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it's a great profession.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, we need to advocate it more.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: So within the whole sector, not just MNG Wealth Advice, you know, I think it's our responsibility, but I think it's the sector's responsibility.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: So other advice businesses as well should be doing the same.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: And they are, you know, they are doing many are doing their bit.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: We're doing our bit now as well, and we're helping uh to you know increase that number of advisors uh within the sector to make the market sustainable for the future.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: And obviously, there's a big thing happening with the great transition of wealth, isn't there?
8:34
SPEAKER_01: There's a great transfer of wealth happening over the next, what, five to ten years?
8:37
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a huge amount of people out there with more wealth than they've ever had.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Distinct lack of financial advisors actually being able to give the advice.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, there is a huge opportunity.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: And what I say to anybody when they're thinking about becoming a financial advisor, they're like, Why should I be a financial advisor if there's less financial advisors there are now than there were years ago?
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, as you rightfully explained, there's been lots of changes that have happened that have diminished the advisor numbers, but it does leave this huge opportunity to come on into a profession where you can work the way that you want to work, but you add value not only in the sense of making money for people through their investments and securing their future and protecting their lives, but there is this whole well-being side of becoming a financial planner as well.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: The impact that you have as an advisor in the well-being of the clients that you were looking after.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: Because we all know that money causes stress, doesn't it?
9:24
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: No, it's a really good point.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's um, you know, we know that uh, you know, in in businesses where um the the number of employees take off a number of sick days and things, we know that the evidence of that points back to sometimes stress and stress, stress situations.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: A lot of it's related to financial, you know, financial concerns.
9:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: So the, you know, that there are so many people who would benefit from having some support with their finances.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that looks like, it might be, you know, on a technology side, it might be guidance, it might be guidance around how to best deal with your finances.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: It could be full financial planning, um, whichever way.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: But you're absolutely right, it's it can help well-being.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: And so that gives satisfaction to the advisors as well, because of course, you know, advisors get get satisfaction from helping people uh, you know, in that process as well.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: And it's really rewarding in that sense.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: You mentioned as well, intergenerational wealth, you know, the transfer of wealth, it's a huge amount going on at the moment, rather than me quoting sort of figures, but the um the the amount of wealth that's moving now from the older generations down to the next generation and even the the third generation down is huge.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: So it's really important now within financial planning that we take all of that into consideration, not just deal with an individual client, an individual person, but actually work out what's gonna happen with the next stages in various eventualities in that client's life cycle, uh, and and making sure that the you know inheritance is handed down to the right people at the right time in the right way.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's a load of planning and work going into that at the moment as well.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, financial planning, you know, it's not just I'm gonna you know select a product for you and that's it.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: There's just so many levels to it now.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: I mean the human behaviour, psychology side of it, you know, how we interact with our clients, the impact that we're actually having, I think is huge.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: So I think um, yeah, that's one of the lots of reasons why it is an exciting opportunity, an exciting career, an exciting time.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: Not to mention the simplistic way now you can train as a financial advisor, which we're going to get into, yeah, that allows you to also take advantage of the simplicity of technology, marketing, digital marketing, how to build your brand online, which would have taken you years and years and years in the past.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: And um, financial planning again, because it's not hyper-competitive, lends itself to you being a standout person within a specific niche that you might choose, whether that's you know, only speaking to footballers and professional sports people, or it could be musicians, YouTubers, you know, it could be anybody with average earnings above 250,000.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: There's so many opportunities for you to establish yourself as a thought leader and an influencer within those spaces.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: And people that have got that hunger and desire to network and uh erase their profiles, what a you know, an amazing profession.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: And then I often say it because I see it as a person from the outside looking in.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: We're in a startup phase with it.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's gone through this old school traditional type look, and now we're going into this startup phase where it's gonna be some very interesting entrepreneurial people coming in because they've been digesting and observing as they've been getting older, YouTube videos and uh Instagram talking about running your own business and being your own master of your own destiny.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: So that's the exciting side of it.
12:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: I completely agree.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: It was all very, very well said.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: We are in that that whole period of moving, still, still evolving, uh, of how we best adapt to the audience and the people who need advice.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: How do we do that?
12:50
SPEAKER_00: And technology is a huge part of that, and there is that opportunity for those who are running their own financial advice enterprises to um choose which segments they want to work in, choose which type of clients they want to um work with, um, and marketing and and promoting their business to that audience um and helping their business and helping the right clients in that in that way as well.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, perfect.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: So, what we're finding as well is within the financial planning profession, there has never been a traditional routine.
13:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you look at accountancy firms, solicitors, you know, you could go to university, have that idea in your head that you're going to become a financial, you know, you're going to become an accountant solicitor, and there's graduate schemes and there's entry levels, and it's all marked out and mapped out beautifully.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: Financial planning is so kind of um new in the sense, especially pre-RDR, that there isn't really this kind of specific route that takes you from being a grad all the way to becoming a financial advisor.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: It's starting to come in.
13:44
SPEAKER_01: We're starting to see it, but there's a lot of confusion out there.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: There's roots into the advice sector where you could start as an administrator.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: There's roots in whether you might have a graduate scheme.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: But there's also lots of people like you guys here at MNG Wealth that have academies that are saying, look, it doesn't matter what your background, your experience, where you've come from, how old you are.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: We've got the training and the development to get you from A to B as quickly as we possibly can in the right way.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: And more importantly, get you in front of clients and actually give them advice.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:14
SPEAKER_01: So you are getting the exposure that you need.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: Because let's not beat around the bush here.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: Becoming a financial advisor, having to go out and win clients is tough, isn't it?
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: So today we're going to talk about the academy.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about really what the academy is about, some of the key sort of questions that might well come up in somebody who's thinking about becoming a financial advisor.
14:35
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully we're going to preempt those, answer those questions for them to give them lots of confidence.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, towards the end, if anybody's interested in this academy, then they can just follow the link and they can join.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: Right.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: So let's just make things very, very clear here.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: This academy is open for people that want to become financial advisors, not administrators or power planners.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Not at the moment.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: No.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Financial advisors specifically at the moment.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: So I think we've we what we've created, um, just going back to what we talked about earlier, is we've created we've taken all of the different mechanisms of how people would join um the profession of a financial advisor in the past.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: And we've created what I think is the most flexible and effective way of doing that, which I'm sure we'll come on to in terms of how that works.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: But it's uh it's very very flexible.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I think we we offer the um trainee advisors a certain a certain way to get into advice, which minimizes their or sort of maximizes their earnings potential early on, gets them up and running quickly, and then we spend a good long time with them uh coaching and mentoring and supervising um that that individual until we get to the point where they're fully experienced.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: So let's just talk about your academy then.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: So let's just talk about the, you know, someone might be listening to this podcast, someone might be watching it and thinking, you know, I might be in a financial advisor, but perhaps there's a limiting belief coming up.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: They don't think they're educated enough, they didn't go to university, they haven't had the relevant experience.
16:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: Let's just talk about who is this academy for?
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Who's it open for?
16:07
SPEAKER_01: What level of experience do they need to become a financial planner?
16:10
SPEAKER_00: So the br the brilliant thing, the brilliant answer to that to that question is it's open to anybody.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: It genuinely is.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: There are no barriers really to anybody.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Level of education obviously is going to be a help, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you know that's uh a criteria or a barrier.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: So we're looking for people with a certain number of attributes, certain things that they can demonstrate that they've got the competencies to become a successful advisor.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Not every it's not suited to everybody.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: And it and it I think there's a certain skill set that's required of certain a certain type of person.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I think we've got a selection process in place where we can delve into uh those different areas and those different competencies and try and figure out who is capable and who isn't.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: But the very important point is it is fully inclusive, open to everybody.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Uh there are no barriers.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: So essentially, if someone's watching this today and they're thinking they want to become a financial planner, they can go through an interview process with you guys.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: They're not going to be um turned away for any reason whatsoever.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean I can go into the selection process if you want, which the what we ask for uh initially actually is uh is a video, a five-minute video to answer a number of questions.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Why, why is this of interest to you?
17:27
SPEAKER_00: What think, what, what uh skills do you think you've got to become a financial advisor?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: And we ask them a certain number of questions that they would answer in a video.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: So we can see what they're look, what they're about, what they look like, and and how they come across.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Because that's important as a financial planner, obviously the interpersonal skills that are required.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then of course, we um we think we would we would then proceed into an interview with that individual where we would try and uncover you know what those uh competencies are and try and talk around those and and and draw those out of the candidate.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then we would do a um a personality profile uh and followed by a uh a role play as well, which again is quite important um of how that individual comes across and how uh how they interact with a client, in this case, a role play client, that yeah, the same type of concept applies.
18:19
SPEAKER_01: Although there's a massive demand for new financial planners within the profession, yeah, you know, let's not beat around a bush here either.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: Let's be honest.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody can become a financial planner.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps some people just are not suited to that route into the profession.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: Um and that's why there are lots of other areas that they can go into.
18:34
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps somebody's more focused into research, they might look into power planning, administration, compliance.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: Now you're looking at marketing, digital marketing, lots of other areas.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: So if anybody's like applying to it and they're thinking, and what I love about your selection process as well, it does go into like personality.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I guess you guys are also going to feedback to people if they have been as unsuccessful as to why they've been as successful.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: So it's a great opportunity for someone to gauge, like, okay, well, that's good.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: I'll take that feedback on board and I might look at some other areas of financial planning.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just because I right now, financial planning being an advisor at this point in my life isn't for me, something else might well be.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: And it might drive them towards that new entry point, yeah.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: Which I like that as well.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: Lots of academies are out there.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: There's a few out there that are standout, obviously.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: And um, what I want to kind of get from you is why do you feel like your academy is different?
19:24
SPEAKER_01: Why do you think, because I think it stands out, but I want you to tell me why do you think it stands out currently, right now?
19:31
SPEAKER_00: So I think what one of the biggest challenges, well, there's there's there's two major challenges with becoming a financial advisor.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: The first one is uh the time that it takes to become fully qualified and competent in the role.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: And of course, during that period, you know, the earnings potential is is is lower than somebody who is fully experienced, obviously, really.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Um and then the second real challenge is if somebody wanted to create and run their own advice business or their own, you know, their own advice enterprise within another business, they've got to build their own client base.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and again, that's a real challenge.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: And so I think we're um we're dealing with both of those challenges in the MG Wealth Advice Academy.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: So for the first one of those is we're trying to minimize the amount of what I call downtime or time time where you're just studying and you've not got any ability to actually earn.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: We're minimizing that right down.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And then the second one of helping trainee advisors build a client bank is we're in a great position to do that because we do have a very large customer base within the business now already.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: So we can provide leads to the individuals to give them the best chance of building that client bank early and quickly, and which will last them for you know many, many years to come down the line.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: So that's when the standout things and the reasons why I think the MG Academy is so good.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: You know, and you've hit the nail on the head, where is historically people have gone through some of the academies that have been around for the last few years, you can almost see how it hasn't supported them on the second stage of their journey.
21:15
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, it's gotten the qualifications, but we all know getting qualifications doesn't make you a financial planner.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: You're sitting down in front of clients giving advice, achieving things such as competent advisor status, having that time and exposure, but also having the mentorship, the training, the development to make sure that you're on the right path.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: And historically, what I have seen in some of the academies where they're trying to do a good thing and they have done a great thing, but some of those guys are going through and coming out without without anything.
21:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:41
SPEAKER_01: You know, and that's a big, big worry, isn't it?
21:43
SPEAKER_01: A big concern.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: And it's a concern also for somebody who's thinking about becoming a financial advisor.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: Because it's like, well, how do you generate business?
21:52
SPEAKER_01: How do you get clients?
21:53
SPEAKER_01: And it can be tough.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: If you're a one man, you know, one person band, yeah, uh, and uh you're saying might be a financial advisor, got my qualification.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Right now, I've got my author, you know, I'm I'm either directly authorized and I'm an appointed representative.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: Being left on your own to find those clients is an absolute struggle.
22:08
SPEAKER_01: So regardless, you're going to need some help.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: It obviously helps if, say, for example, you come from another profession where you've established a very great network.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: A network of very interesting people.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: It could be business owners, couldn't it?
22:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: You could be a marketing manager who's used to going around seeing lots of different uh companies and interesting people that might be might be perfect for financial planning.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: Getting yourself in with other businesses is very useful in that respect.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: But um, okay, good.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: And I think the lead side of it is one of the most important things that needed to be addressed within all these academies.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: It's okay, come on in, get your qualifications.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: Now what?
22:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: And you've you've absolutely nailed that.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I mean, the qualifications bit, let's just be clear that that that is a component of learning to become a financial advisor.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, my own view, I've which I've built up over several years now, is that there are four main areas of competence, skills, if you like, uh, that make a good financial advisor.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: And not all of those are covered by the qualifications.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: So if if I run through those, I think the first, the first uh prerequisite is that you have to have uh the capacity for technical knowledge.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: So, as I mentioned before, this is a fully inclusive uh academy program.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't matter if you've got no qualifications at all.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there might be a criteria of having a few GCSEs, but um, it doesn't matter if you're not not A-level qualified or you've got a degree or whatever.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: But what we need to see in terms of, you know, demonstrably see is that the individual has the capacity to learn technical information, you know, financial planning.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: There is a fair bit of technical information out there, you know, about you know regulation and product uh specific areas that we've got to, you know, the candidate needs to fully understand.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: And not only just understand that, they've got to then uh maintain that knowledge as well.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: So the qualifications uh benchmark, which is called RQF level four, um, that was introduced as a benchmark qualification.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: So you've got to be able to achieve that.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, if you don't get the qualifications, you can't be a financial uh planner.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: That's that's a regulatory requirement to be licensed as a financial planner.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: So the individual has to have the technical knowledge.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: That's the first part.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Second to that is at what I call conduct and ethics.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: We're in a highly regulated sector, and um, so uh adherence to regulation and compliance is really, really important.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Making sure that documentation is fully uh completed, properly, thoroughly, um, processes are followed carefully.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: The customer is always at the heart of the business, and everything, all the decisions that are made should be uh in the benefit and in it specifically helping the client.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: So adherence to rules, rule book, regulation, I call it uh I call it uh um conduct and ethics because actually, if you if you conduct yourself and you follow all those uh the the the conduct and ethics in in theory, the regulations shouldn't even need to apply.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: So regulations are there to make sure that you you do follow that.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: But if you did thing, if you did things right anyway, the regulations shouldn't necessarily come into play.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: The third part is um I would uh around business acumen, business development.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: So advice businesses have to stay around for a long period of time for the benefit of their clients.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: It's no good if you are not very good at running a business and you go bankrupt after you know um a few years.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: It's no good to you or your clients.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: So business acumen and business development, we talked about before, uh, maybe following a certain type of client or having a certain specialism, that might be a business development opportunity when when things change, for example, within the um within regulation or within um uh new new policy um from the government, there might be certain avenues to pursue uh in that as well.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: So it's important to have that business uh acumen.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: And then the fourth area, which is probably the most important and probably the most forgotten about, is you've got to have interpersonal skills, right?
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Um talking about money is a very taboo subject, uh, and actually having conversations with clients about what they earn and what money they've got, what savings, what's important to them, why is it important to them, what do they want to achieve?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: How important are their kids to their relationship?
26:27
SPEAKER_00: How important is this?
26:28
SPEAKER_00: So we we we've got as financial advisors to uncover what those needs, what those aspirations are, what the objectives are of the client.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be able to listen carefully, question, probe, uh, question, you know, draw that information out with as much empathy as possible and understanding and good relationship skills.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And then you've got to have brilliant communication.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be able to communicate in written format, herbal format, you know, disseminate quite complex areas, complex um concepts to clients in a very easy, understandable way so that they clearly understand what they're doing.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: So just to recap on that, technical knowledge, conduct and ethics, business development, business acumen, uh, and interpersonal skills.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: They're the they're the really key competences that are needed to become a financial planner, and they're not all covered by qualifications alone.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Beautifully articulated.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: Very well done.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: I think it's the first time someone's actually giving me a full breakdown of exactly what's required.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: So thank you very much.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: That will come in very beneficial to anybody listening to this without a shadow of a doubt.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: Tom, what about okay, we've got the academy, fantastic.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: You know it works, we've got people going through it, okay.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that another problem that you solved, okay, is like if I'm outside of the profession, I'm thinking about becoming a financial planner, we all know that, okay, I'm sitting in my job, I'm earning 60 grand a year as a marketing manager.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: What?
27:47
SPEAKER_01: I really want to be a financial planner, but everywhere I'm seeing, it looks like I've got to take a drop in my salary.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: I've got to take a drop in my salary to even do my qualifications.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: So if I join a firm and their trainee program, they're expecting me to go in on£25,000.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing to sort of combat that barrier to entry and growing the financial planners out there?
28:05
SPEAKER_00: So as I said earlier, it's definitely that is definitely a barrier.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're earning somewhere, what you don't want to do is take a year or longer out to uh study full-time and take and leave your job to do that.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, so being fully aware of that challenge, what we've created within MNG Wealth Advice is that the qualifications can be done on a part-time basis.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: So you stay in your job, whatever that job is that you're currently doing, and you carry on earning what you're currently earning.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: And what we expect from the candidates who we take onto the academy was that would be that they study for their qualifications in their spare time.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: So in evenings and weekends, yes, it's demanding.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at around seven hours a week of um of additional workload of learning.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And we we provide a weekly, you know, um weekly set of assignments so it's very clear what the learning program is.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: But achieving those qualifications while you're still employed means that there is no drop in earnings.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: You can then uh stay in your job all the way through to the point where you are you receive your qualification certificate, which again is I'd said that is a criteria to be a financial advisor.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: You have to have that qualification.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: So if we get that qualification done while you're still, you know, working in a job and not dropping earnings, that's a great way to get in.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: I think it's fantastic.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: I think it gives people comfort in knowing that they can pay their bills, they're used to a certain lifestyle, aren't they?
29:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, they want to retrain, they don't really want to take that leap out of something they know they're familiar with, that brings them in an income into something completely blind, which they've never sort of done.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: It gives them that beautiful way to transition into becoming a financial planner, they're not having to, and correct me if I'm wrong, spend the money on the qualifications themselves because you guys cover the costs.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: That's right, yeah, we cover the cost as well.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: So um that qualification journey is is a modular learning program.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: We actually use the CII Diploma, Diploma in Financial Planning, um, which is six exam qualifications.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: Um we provide all the study materials, workshops, there's online apps where we can um you know see the uh or test understanding and do mock mock qualificate you know questions, um, the exam entry, um, all of the logistics around that, the management of that, and the the learning program, yeah, all funded by us.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, if obviously we're incurring uh expense doing that, if we have somebody that then does drop out at some point, then there might be a right for us to claim some of that cost back.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it will depend how far that individual is down the journey and how much out of pocket we are, I guess, from doing that.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: And it's not an astronomical amount for somebody.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: If they were gonna study themselves and buy the workbooks themselves and do it all themselves and pay the trainers, there would be a cost incurred for um you know dipping their toe in the water to see if it's a profession that they think that they would want to do it.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be much more expensive doing it that way than if they did it themselves.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: And they would incur that expense anyway.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh so yeah.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: And the difference being, like, the thing that would probably turn you off of continuing on the path is the accountability side, whereas you keep them accountable for what they're doing, because we will go on to this in a minute around the stages of the Action Academy and what's involved in each of those valuable uh stages to ensure that people uh meet their goal of becoming that financial planner at the end.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: Okay, a lot of people who um are thinking about becoming financial planners um rightfully would like to know how much money they are going to earn as a financial advisor.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: They also ask the question around whether or not employed or self-employed is the best option.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: And in their heads, they often have an idea of what they think they require, whether that's employment or self-employment, usually based on their uh personal attitude to risk, their financial situation, where they are in life, uh, and their confidence.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: So let's just bring that back then.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: So talk to me a little bit about how people end up, once they've gone through the academy, which we'll go on to in a minute, they actually join MNG Wealth.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: What options are available?
32:10
SPEAKER_01: Is there employed?
32:10
SPEAKER_01: Is there self-employed?
32:11
SPEAKER_01: What is there a hybrid role?
32:12
SPEAKER_01: Tell us about that.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good, good question.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: So um we do have a number of uh different models within uh MNG Wealth as a business.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, the the I the idea really would be uh for an individual to become a self-employed uh advisor, either within an existing firm within MNG Wealth Advice, or um we will support somebody to set up their own business.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: Right.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: So their own, you know, complete enterprise, then a name above the door, they're the principal director, owner, whatever they want to call themselves.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: So that's the that's where the real big opportunity is here.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: Now in financial planning, there are lots of employed positions around, and it can be a salaried role.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, and um, I guess I would say probably salaries are limited to a degree.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: What we're offering within M and G Wealth Advice is the ability for somebody to really, you know, capitalise on their own future and grow their own enterprise to and that you know, there's no limit to that, which is the fantastic opportunity.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: What we also though do have is a business which is um uh which is what we we could term as a hybrid advice business, which we do have a number of employed advisors, um, a few dozen, and it's a people-led technology-enabled uh advice operation, and it covers certain types of clients at certain types, uh at certain parts of the advice process.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we might have positions available within that area if there was somebody that needed, wanted very much to be employed rather than than self-employed.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that that would be you know the the the main um end destination that somebody would go to within MG Wealth Advice, either you know, running their own business enterprise, either under an existing firm or running their new their own new business.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic, great, and very exciting for anybody that has that entrepreneurial spirit and wants to grow a brand their way.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they have that backing of MG Wealth.
34:13
SPEAKER_01: And let's just reinforce that for those that don't really understand that concept.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: So if I'm Sam Oakes and I want to run Financial Planner Life is my financial planning business.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what a great name.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I should do that underneath.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:24
SPEAKER_01: So we've got the financial planner life, but on my website, for example, it would be part of MNG Wealth, right?
34:30
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:31
SPEAKER_01: But the clients that I work with would see me as Sam Oakes, Financial Planner Life.
34:36
SPEAKER_01: And my branding and my marketing and everything that's involved will be the financial planner life.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: But the beauty of it is because you've already got lots of content that you've created under MNG Wealth, I assume it can be white labeled.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: So uh in that example, your business cards, your letterheads, and um your web, your website would all be your own brand, uh, which would say a partner of MNG Wealth Advice.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: So there is an association there with MNG with the large MNG Wealth Advice um organization.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, you would market yourself through your own brand um and have your own logo, um, you know, do your own marketing, however you want to do that.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: And we would oversee all that, make sure that you're doing that in the right way to all the regulatory requirements and the content is um you know uh checked before before you send anything out, for example.
35:31
SPEAKER_01: It's very nice though, isn't it?
35:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to focus on my personal brand.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to focus on the way that I want to operate when it comes to developing a business as long as it's within the rules of the FCA and it comes around marketing, etc.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: So that's really useful for people that have that entrepreneurial drive and entrepreneurial spirit and can see the market that they want to work in, yeah, but have the support and the safety net, if you like, of an MMG wealth behind them, checking all the work.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, perfect, great stuff.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk about money.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: This is what you do as a financial advice firm, you talk about money.
36:01
SPEAKER_01: But people that are getting into a new career want to know how much they can earn.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: That's very, very important.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they want to pay the bills.
36:07
SPEAKER_01: And I think transparency and clarity around that is something that often lacks in a role where it can often be based on performance or building a client base.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: So let's talk realism, realistically, okay.
36:19
SPEAKER_01: If someone was to come over to uh M and G Wealth and start their career as a financial planner, yeah, what would they earn in year one, year two, year three?
36:29
SPEAKER_00: So we've made very, I'd say pretty conservative estimates because we don't want to overpromise and you know under deliver.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: It does come down to the individual, but we would say somebody that we would take through the academy should be earning uh 25k uh year one, probably 50k plus year two, and then 75k plus year three and beyond.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that and that can carry on increasing, you know, depending on how um how well that individual does.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: They have the ability to grow their business.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: They could recruit, you know, back office staff, administrators, power planners, other advisors to work in their business as well, and they could grow uh, you know, to their heart's content.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that could obviously increase um the fees that they generate.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: I think it's really refreshing to hear the figures that you've actually quoted.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: More often than not, people can be misled.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: I liken it very much to like recruitment.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: You put an advert out, earn a hundred thousand pounds in your first year, you know, and people get brought into that and it's absolute garbage, it's absolute rubbish.
37:30
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: Um here, you know, in my company, we ensure that we are completely and utterly transparent and realistic about what the minimum is you can earn.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: That's not saying that that's what they are going to earn.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: No, we're just saying this is a conservative amount that we think that you could earn and expect as a minimum.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: However, the type of person that you are, how you work, based on the business that we think we're going to provide to you, we think considerably more.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: However, this is the kind of minimum we expect you to do.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: No, I agree.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if it's no good telling somebody that we think they could earn X amount and giving them some sort of false expectation because all we'd end up with is people probably making plans thinking that they were going to earn more and then getting a bit demoralized and end up leaving.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: And then we all lose, you know, everybody loses out of that scenario.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: And let's be clear here as well, you guys are um uh as a company providing leads as well to these individuals.
38:20
SPEAKER_01: So it's not like you're coming across and having to start from scratch.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: How many leads is it again that are provided on say a yearly basis and how long for?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: So uh we've we've we're we're very fortunate as a business to have um a large customer base within our provider, within Prudential as a business.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we we do um offer advice uh opportunities to those those clients if they if they need it.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: And if they've not got a financial advice, that's very important as well.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: Many of those clients or customers already have a financial advisor elsewhere, which is fine and they should carry on dealing with that financial advisor.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: But where the where there is a uh a customer client who who doesn't have a financial advisor, we offer them um the opportunity to gain advice and we'll pass them out to one of our advisors.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: So at the moment, we will be we're looking to provide 80 leads to uh a trainee advisor in their first year and then 100 leads to them in their second year.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Now that could change depending on the uh availability of leads that we have.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: It's not an endless supply, you know, that's that will diminish over time.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that though those leads are existing customers of the um the provide the the uh of MNG.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: Um so they're they're already usually they've already got you know a policy.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Um and so they are usually fairly open to uh listening to um ideas around how they how they could be helped from an advice perspective.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: So we have made an assessment on the number of leads that we think would be uh genuine, you know, conservatively converted by uh uh a trainee advisor into a proper client, where that client would be then paying uh for any uh transactional fees, for any initial fees, and then an on uh an ongoing relationship and they pay uh an amount on an annual basis as well.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: That's how the fees work, uh by the way.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: Um and so we've we've we've worked out the uh earnings capacity based on um our experience, which is quite extensive, of what those conversion rates look like and how many clients are likely to continue with the advice that they're offered.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
40:29
SPEAKER_01: So those to the 20, you know, the 25, the 15, the 75 conservatively works it out based on the business that you actually pass over to that individual advisor.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Oh, so anything they're doing on top is a bonus.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: We we have, I think within that calculation, we've we've assumed that around 20% of their business would be self-generated.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: So that would be through what we'd call referrals or you know, um any uh networking they might do personally, but only 20%, whereas the 80% would be from business we're providing the opportunity to the trainee to um to capitalise on.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: But something that's worth mentioning at this point as well is that you know, this is again, you know, you're not handing over lead after lead after lead after lead forever and ever and ever.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: Um there is a supplement to to to to leads getting across you, and there'd probably be an end day.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: But the idea is just to get you up and running during that period where you might well struggle if you were doing it on your own.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you probably would struggle.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's very difficult, you know, to cons to actually concentrate on becoming a good advisor and at the same time feeling a bit more under pressure because you you're trying to self-generate your own business through you know networking and marketing and uh various mechanisms that we talked about.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: If we're providing those opportunities for you, it helps the individual really, really focus on becoming a better advisor and getting up and running and competent much quicker.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
41:51
SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
41:51
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for that transparency.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: I think it helps when someone makes a decision that they have an idea that they can put down a figure of what to expect.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: Can we just go back to something that a lot of people don't quite understand, which is how um an advisor charges for that advice?
42:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:07
SPEAKER_01: And we talked about the initial fee and the ongoing fee and how that makes up their income as an advisor, as in their salary or their income that gets paid to them.
42:15
SPEAKER_01: Can you just briefly clarify that, Suzy, if someone was listening, they would understand it?
42:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um financial advice is really a is a professional service.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it the intention is to uh help an ad to help a client with their financial planning needs.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are different ways of charging fees to clients, but ultimately clients are charged for work that is carried out by the advisor.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: So if you make a recommendation to a client, you're entitled to charge a fee for doing that.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: Now there are two uh types of fees.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: We call them initial advice fees, which is where there is a specific um uh aim and objective for that client uh and a specific recommendation that's made to the client uh on their based on their needs.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: And that would be charged as an initial fee, we call that.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then what's also important is that that that that client then receives an ongoing service relationship with that with that advisor to make sure that their plan stays on track, stays within their uh you know, risk appetites, is continually uh aiming towards meeting their uh goals and objectives, which might may well change over time.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: So, what the advisor would do is have a uh a meeting regularly with that client, at least once a year, where the um the advisor would check in with the client, make sure that they're still on track, make sure that what they have in terms of their products and the way that they're aiming to meet their goals and objectives uh is still on track.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: And for that annual review uh process, there would be an annual review fee that would be paid to the advisor.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, so then what we would do as a business.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: And how we're paid as a MNG Wealth Advice is we would retain a portion of that fee ourselves.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: And the fee is actually paid to us.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: We then retain a portion of that and we pay the subsequent amount onto the advisor.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: And then we pay them on a monthly basis at the moment.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: We accumulate all our fees onto a ledger and then pay them at the end of the month.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: Great stuff.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: Just to clarify, so again, if someone's listening, the retention amount that you keep there at MNG Wealth is for the service that you provide.
44:29
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
44:29
SPEAKER_01: Compliance, putting the lights on, offices like this, all that kind of stuff.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:34
SPEAKER_01: Spot on.
44:35
SPEAKER_01: Great stuff.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: That's really useful.
44:38
SPEAKER_01: And I think often it kind of gets lost in the advertisement of the career within financial planning because so many people don't understand how it is they actually get paid.
44:51
SPEAKER_01: So that's really useful.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that, Tom.
44:53
SPEAKER_01: So, okay, right.
44:54
SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: This sounds amazing, right?
44:56
SPEAKER_01: We've got the academy, fantastic.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm sitting there thinking, now I'm fired up for this.
45:00
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to join the academy.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: How long would do you think it would take for somebody to go through the academy?
45:07
SPEAKER_00: So we've got we've got a number of stages.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: So let me go through the stages.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: So the first part, let's call stage one, is the qualification journey, right?
45:16
SPEAKER_00: So that would, as I've mentioned earlier, that would be done on a part-time basis while somebody is currently working in their current job, whatever that is, without having to give up their job.
45:25
SPEAKER_00: So they do it on a part-time basis.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: Now that would take a maximum of, well, we say a maximum of 15 months.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: And that's to follow the recommended uh study time from the CII over uh for for each of the modules that they would complete, which is called R01 through to R06.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: And uh that's the the recommended time of seven hours a week.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a reasonably intense journey to do as a part-time uh course.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: You couldn't probably do it much quicker if you did it full-time.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: So if you actually gave up your job completely and did this program, I wouldn't have thought you can do it much quicker.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: But we do have the ability for those who are really ambitious to actually do what's called an unsupported journey.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: So they could do it quite a little bit quicker.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: But let's say, let's say stage one is 15 months, all the way from the start, all the way till receiving a certificate to passing R06.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: So that's 15 months, yeah.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: At that point, we would then ask the uh trainee advisor to leave their employment and commit to us energy wealth advice on a full-time basis.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: And we'd then take them into stage two.
46:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, stage two is um is a financial planning uh foundation program.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: So where I talked about all the skills that are required, uh much of which isn't included within the qualifications themselves.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: We take them through all those other aspects.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: So that's all the interpersonal skills, the business development bits, the how to run compliant client meetings, how to document things, all those um aspects.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: And that is a full-time program uh which takes a month.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: So during that period, there is no ability to earn that that month period.
47:06
SPEAKER_00: Right, okay.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: Stage three is subsequent to stage two, obviously, but it's um it's about understanding our policies and processes.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: So there are certain ways we do things within MIG Wealth Advice.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: We have certain advice policies, we have certain processes, we have certain systems, IT systems.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so it's it's going through all of those and making sure that the uh trainee and advisor understands their infrastructure of how they run their business.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, it will cover lots of the aspects of those competencies that are required.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: So that that that stage three is also a month.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: So that's two months where there is inability to earn and inability, you know, you know, it it's what I call payment downtime, let's say, revenue downtime.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
47:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's it then.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: So then as soon as you've done those those stage two and stage three, which are a month each, yeah.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: We then uh in the background, there is a process going on where we take the individual through the FCA authorization process.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: And then uh on on completion of stage three, they are licensed to give advice under supervision.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: So that at that point, we start providing them with client leads and they've done role plays and they've done, they've practiced how they would interact with clients before beforehand.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: And then um, so stage four is is what we call journey, the journey to becoming a competent advisor.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: So journey to CAS, competent advisor status.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: And we would take them through that process where the um client meetings that they run, um, the approach calls and you know, um interactions with clients would all be conducted under supervision and monitored closely with lots of coaching and mentoring and development in the background as well.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, the journey to CAS, we think would be around 12 months.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that is just a little bit more in well, it's it's fairly intense supervision.
49:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we would monitor the individual, make sure that they're doing things correctly, coach them and mentor them into the right, you know, to becoming much better at what they do.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: Once they achieve the end at the end, so the end of stage four, we would hope that they achieve their competent advisor status.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: And then we'd move on to stage five, which really we we call a supported journey.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: They they have demonstrated competent advisor status.
49:29
SPEAKER_00: You could say, in a way, they've passed their driving test.
49:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, but then post the driving test for another 12 months, we would just keep a close eye on them, make sure they they were doing things properly, um, make sure that we can give them further development, support, coaching, mentoring uh to improve them even more.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of stage five, which again we think is about 12 months, we would then deem them an experienced advisor.
49:56
SPEAKER_00: And they are on their own and running their own advice business.
50:01
SPEAKER_00: So overall, end-to-end, and we recap on that.
50:04
SPEAKER_00: Stage one, 15 months qualifications, stage two, one month, stage three, one month, and then stage uh four, twelve months, journey to CAS, stage five, twelve months, supported journey.
50:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, however, so overall you could say that's three years and five months, right?
50:23
SPEAKER_00: But 15 months of that is done while you're still, you know, on a part-time basis, which is the qualifications.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: So you could cut that down to two years and um two months.
50:33
SPEAKER_00: And then two years of that, you are actually giving advice.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: You're seeing clients giving advice and you're earning, you're you're um, you're actually doing the job, but it's just under supervision.
50:43
SPEAKER_00: So you could really cut that down to it's only two months of intense learning where you're not actually doing the job and you're not working.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're not earning.
50:51
SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, take from that whatever the time frame is.
50:55
SPEAKER_00: But the overall journey to becoming, you know, really an experienced advisor is that three, three and a half years, really.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: And hitting the level of earnings that you've projected for somebody, does that take into consideration the time you spend on the uh qualification side?
51:11
SPEAKER_01: Or is the three years to say getting to 75 average uh minimum?
51:16
SPEAKER_01: Is that taken into consideration when they they leave their company and join MNG Wealth, or is that inclusive of the qualification side?
51:24
SPEAKER_00: The start of stage four, the start once once they've done the two the two months uh full full uh time training from that point, that's when they start earning.
51:33
SPEAKER_00: So the journey to CAS year would be the 25k that we would expect.
51:38
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
51:38
SPEAKER_00: The supported journey, stage five, would be the 50k you'd expect, and then experienced advisor, 75k plus.
51:45
SPEAKER_01: And uh it's not even an issue because they're in their current job, they're still continuing to earn the salary that they used to use to earn during the qualification stages.
51:52
SPEAKER_01: During the qualification stages, and a little bit of icing on the you know, the cherry on the cake is that they're not paying for that.
51:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
51:57
SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you so much for breaking down those stages.
52:00
SPEAKER_01: I think I've got some questions around the individual stages that I think I would ask if I was uh was was um was good gonna go on that journey.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: Now, when it comes to the qualifications, you mentioned ROs, so through the CII.
52:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
52:15
SPEAKER_01: I'm busy doing my job.
52:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
52:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
52:18
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not the most amazing at uh retaining or or learning or you know that sort of stuff.
52:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm not brilliant.
52:25
SPEAKER_01: I am good, but I I you know I need a bit of help and a support.
52:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
52:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, what do you guys do to provide the help and support for passing those qualifications?
52:35
SPEAKER_01: Because am I just literally in the back bedroom with a textbook, you know, late at night going, oh my god, what am I doing?
52:41
SPEAKER_01: Or is somebody going to be there helping me along the way to passing my qualifications, answering some questions, giving me some sound advice and perspective?
52:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're not on your own at all.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: No, no, if you if you were to go and study the exam, yeah, anyone could go and study these exams themselves.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: They're available to go and join the CII and do your own exams.
52:57
SPEAKER_00: And we have actually some people that come into the academy program who are already qualified, in which case they would just miss out on that first 15 months, start at stage two and progress through the academy that way.
53:08
SPEAKER_00: Um but you know, the qualifications are um they're not easy, they they can be a bit dry for somebody that's come, you know, that's new to advice, and there is a fair bit of reading and um and understanding the uh concepts within that.
53:23
SPEAKER_00: So some of the RO exams are quite theoretical around regulation and history of regulation and how that works.
53:30
SPEAKER_00: And then there are some that are a bit more technical on specific subject areas.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: There are formula and calculations involved in some of them as well, which uh you know is is a is a skill to getting good at at understanding how they they work.
53:44
SPEAKER_00: So no, we need to provide um guidance and coaching and mentoring again on and and additional support around training and getting the qualifications.
53:52
SPEAKER_00: We provide a weekly program.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: So each week we'll say, your task for this week is to complete you know this number of chapters of the uh of the TII book of whichever exam.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: And uh and then we have conference calls where we answer any questions uh that the candidates might have, something that they're not quite getting the concept, and we'll try and refresh them on that.
54:14
SPEAKER_00: And then I think generally for each of the exams, we have two workshops.
54:19
SPEAKER_00: It's all done remotely, this by the way, it's all uh virtual.
54:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we we provide workshops online where it's um almost a you know full day where we can take uh the individual through the whole syllabus of that qualification so that they're really ready and geared up to then um and do some mock tests as well to then go and uh maximize their chances of passing the exam.
54:42
SPEAKER_00: Might be putting you on the spot here, but do you know what your pass rate is?
54:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's higher than the pass rate of doing it directly.
54:49
SPEAKER_00: Is it?
54:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there we go.
54:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but we we to be honest, we've only been running the academy since September 2021.
54:55
SPEAKER_00: So it's not even a year yet.
54:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have got some some some good pass rates, and they are slightly better than the the general pass rate for those qualifications, and that's because we provide the support.
55:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but I couldn't tell you the specific figure right now.
55:09
SPEAKER_01: That's fine, no problem.
55:10
SPEAKER_01: Now we move then on to stage two, which is around.
55:14
SPEAKER_01: So I've done my qualifications, I passed them, right?
55:16
SPEAKER_01: I've got my yes, I'm I'm level four qualified, right?
55:19
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to join MNG Wealth.
55:20
SPEAKER_01: Um and there's that two month period where I'm not going to earn any money, yeah, right, unless I'm on a hybrid role or something like that, right?
55:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
55:28
SPEAKER_01: But the majority of people that probably will go through this will be expected, you know, expecting to probably run their own businesses.
55:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let's let's put that out there.
55:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think so, yeah.
55:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
55:37
SPEAKER_01: So I'm now it's advisable, I think, I guess, to ensure that you save money, enough money to be able to cover you for those two months.
55:45
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
55:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's an advisable thing to do.
55:47
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
55:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, it can be given financial advice.
55:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
55:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, so save some money for that, that's obvious.
55:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, but let's just talk about what those two months of skills and behavior training actually look like.
56:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
56:01
SPEAKER_01: Um and just can you just sort of give us some examples of what they'll be working on?
56:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
56:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, because a lot of the people are going to come with the skills and behaviors already, aren't they?
56:11
SPEAKER_01: They're just going to be fine-tuned to the role of what a financial planner does and how they use them.
56:15
SPEAKER_00: Can you get that right?
56:16
SPEAKER_00: So the so the selection process, which we talked about earlier, should should actually uncover those transferable skills and the individuals being able to uh demonstrate that they've got the skills in the background.
56:28
SPEAKER_00: But of course, what they need to do is then apply those skills and behaviors to the financial advice skill set.
56:35
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, stage two is a month course.
56:40
SPEAKER_00: It's broken down into a series of different modules, um, which will be around things like the advice process, things around the behaviors that you need to demonstrate, um, which, you know, the interpersonal skills I talked about, about questioning techniques, listening skills, how to show empathy with clients, how to document um, you know, the advice process, um, how to run you know compliant meetings, what disclosure is is required, um, uh and then how to make recommendations to clients as well.
57:11
SPEAKER_00: So it will touch on some of the content from the qualifications.
57:16
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the qualifications are theoretical, whereas what we're doing in stage two is actually what does that look like in practice?
57:23
SPEAKER_00: What does that theory that you've learned from the qualifications actually look like when you're doing the job?
57:28
SPEAKER_00: So it's about learning how to do the job of a financial planner.
57:32
SPEAKER_00: What are the important uh competencies that are required?
57:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, in terms of examples, that would include, for example, a role play.
57:40
SPEAKER_00: So we would actually say, here is a client scenario where this client has got these circumstances, and we probably pair them up into uh, you know, pairs, and one would uh act out the uh the role of the client, what the client wants, and the advisor would attempt to talk the client uh through the advice process.
58:00
SPEAKER_00: So asking the right questions, getting the right answers, documenting, probing on certain points, and then probably uh another role play on delivering the solution to the client.
58:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, what is it that's and the risk, the research that's involved, and then delivering the right solution and writing the reports as well, you know, which is a very fundamental part of financial planning as well, making sure that communication isn't just done verbally, it's also backed up very carefully uh through a suitability report.
58:29
SPEAKER_01: Great.
58:30
SPEAKER_01: So two months of an individual individual coming into the role of a financial planner without any experience, really understanding fundamentally every part of what it is they need to do under supervision, with some role plays, fantastic.
58:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
58:41
SPEAKER_01: So someone's gonna be like, not just here you go, you're a financial advisor, we're gonna let you off the leash, off you go, and make some money, and most importantly, make us some money.
58:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
58:48
SPEAKER_00: No, so so as soon as we we actually get them to the point where we're we're saying, look, here's a real client that you've got to go and work with and understand what is it that they require and um provide a recommendation to them, they should be fully equipped to do that.
59:02
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they're unlikely to be um you know fully skilled and fine-tuned because I'd say even advisors with dozen or a dozen years experience are still gonna be fine-tuning their skill set absolutely, obviously, different different clients need different approaches, different people have different um behaviors that we uh as a financial advisor that need to be adapted to.
59:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's always a learning process.
59:26
SPEAKER_00: I think just the but but the um trainee advisor should be equipped after those two months to understand the concepts of what they should be doing, and then they'll be fine-tuning that uh their skill set, you know, going forward from there.
59:38
SPEAKER_01: Bit of theory, bit of reflection, observation, bit of coaching, management training.
59:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, off you go, out into the real world, yeah, and have some real experiences where we all know that that's where most of the essential learning happens, it happens.
59:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
59:53
SPEAKER_01: And there's also an ongoing responsibility, isn't there, for ongoing learning and development as a financial planner.
59:58
SPEAKER_01: There's a certain amount of hours that you have to do.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, but outside of that also is the um, and we're seeing so much more of it now with financial planners, uh getting that external training from coaches, etc., about how to work with clients, how to open them up, how to build uh relationships with them that get them to um share their stories, which strengthens relationships.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the the um the ongoing knowledge is really important actually as well.
1:00:23
SPEAKER_00: So as I mentioned earlier, financial advisors have got to get that benchmark qualification.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_00: But of course, legislation changes, regulation changes, you know, the economy changes.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_00: So um advisors have to be equipped and and under, you know, and understand on an ongoing basis all of those changes.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_00: So tax changes every year.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, the the the chancellor will make changes to personal uh tax rates and tax bans.
1:00:48
SPEAKER_00: So an individual has to know those um that those changes.
1:00:52
SPEAKER_00: So we we also have a program which will make sure that those advisors maintain and keep their knowledge you know up to speed uh each year.
1:01:01
SPEAKER_00: So they have to do 35 hours as a minimum of continued professional development, of which 21 hours needs to be what's called structured learning.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_00: So it'll be seminars and meetings and um or online modules where there's clear learning outcomes.
1:01:16
SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, it's a really, you know, it's really important for financial advisors to always remember that you're never going to be perfect.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_00: It's always a learning journey, you know, whether that's technical learning or as you said, Sam, it'll be around brushing up those interpersonal skills and um, you know, how to work, you know, and get better outcomes from clients uh and improve the client experience and improve client outcomes.
1:01:41
SPEAKER_00: So that's what it's all about.
1:01:42
SPEAKER_00: And it's a continual, continual journey.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_00: All advisors should be, you know, brushing up on those skills uh indefinitely.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_01: So let's just demystify one thing that comes up a lot and confuses people who want to become financial planners, and that's cas status.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_01: So that's stage four with you guys, isn't it?
1:02:02
SPEAKER_01: Competent advisor status.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_01: You've expressed there that competent advisor status can take 12 months, and that during that period you are actually still giving financial advice and you are still generating income and growing your business, essentially.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:15
SPEAKER_01: Um, could you simplify and for someone who might not have any understanding of what competent advisor status is, what why it's there and what it is?
1:02:22
SPEAKER_00: So if we okay, if we if we if we didn't have it, I guess, and we we um we gave clients to a trainee advisor without any supervision, there could be a concern that the outcomes aren't met properly.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_00: The advisor might say things that they shouldn't, they might document things that they shouldn't have done and said uh and breach regulatory requirements.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_00: Um at the same time, they might not brush up on their skills, they might realize not or not realize what they're doing wrong, what they could improve.
1:02:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we have a supervisor there.
1:02:55
SPEAKER_00: And we have the the supervisor or coach will um will basically stay close to that advisor, uh, to the trainee advisor, monitor what they're doing, they'll um they'll actually um attend the client meetings with the trainee advisor and observe them and make uh a note on specific parts of that uh meeting that they have.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_00: So have they disclosed their uh status properly?
1:03:20
SPEAKER_00: Have they talked to the client about what fees they charge and why?
1:03:23
SPEAKER_00: Have they uh gone through all the questions that they should do within the fact-finding stage of understanding a client?
1:03:30
SPEAKER_00: Have they done that properly and thoroughly?
1:03:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, and if they haven't, they'd make sure that they would learn and develop from that.
1:03:37
SPEAKER_00: And the client would also be informed that there might have been something missed, which we have to go back to the client and make sure that they understand something that's missing.
1:03:45
SPEAKER_00: So that process takes time.
1:03:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, everybody has to go through it.
1:03:49
SPEAKER_00: It's um it is like learning to drive, for example, and and you know, fine-tuning and getting better at it to the point where actually we get to the point where we say, you know, actually, you know what you're doing now.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_00: You know, we you know from uh the the supervision process that you're now fully competent.
1:04:08
SPEAKER_00: You can do this on your own.
1:04:09
SPEAKER_00: You don't need me to come and sit with you and uh observe your client meetings.
1:04:13
SPEAKER_00: We will still check uh the recommendations that are made.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_00: We do for all advisors, uh, and and we do we do spot check and check certain types of advice uh to make sure that we we we understand the risk within our our overall business.
1:04:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we would we would effectively sign off that trainee to being competent.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_00: So at the end of that 12-month period, hopefully at the other, it could be earlier than that, by the way, or it might take longer than that, but we think realistically 12 months is a an appropriate time frame.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and at the end of that, we would um we would sign them off, let's say, as a competent advisor, which is a certification of sorts, um, and we don't need to provide the same level of supervision uh going forward.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_00: However, we want to because it's the right thing to do.
1:05:03
SPEAKER_00: So even after the competent advisor status is achieved, we think it's right to continue that process with a bit a lighter touch type of process, but we keep that supervision in place to just continue to help and support, train and coach the individual to really become a much much better at what they do.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_01: Thus protecting your clients, but also protecting the advisor because ultimately an advisor is responsible for the advice that they're given.
1:05:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:31
SPEAKER_01: Um and that can have all sorts of problems in the future legally, yeah.
1:05:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you give the wrong advice and it's protecting all of us, the advisor, our cell, our own business, the client, all everything.
1:05:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:05:41
SPEAKER_01: Just that reassurance of the advisor, really.
1:05:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:44
SPEAKER_01: Um, something around competent advisor stasis that's um I think it's worth noting as well with you guys is that because you are providing leads, therefore, you're putting them into situations where they're going to be giving financial advice.
1:05:57
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, there's more opportunity then to supervise, observe.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_01: And provide a more thorough competent advisor process, a more structure, perhaps a more structured competent advisor process.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree on that or have I got the wrong end of the stick?
1:06:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
1:06:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure it'd make much difference.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if if we didn't provide leads and the trainee advisor sourced their own clients, then what we would what we would do is ask the trainee advisor to tell us when they would have meetings due and we'd still attend and observe and supervise in the same way.
1:06:26
SPEAKER_00: So that's what other advice businesses would do.
1:06:28
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure it's any, I'm not sure it's any different that we're providing clients or not.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_00: The supervision process should should be the same.
1:06:37
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking more along the lines if somebody was going through like an academy process where they had to be 100% self-sufficient upon their own business plan.
1:06:45
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, there'd be a lack of meet client meetings, say over that 12 months.
1:06:49
SPEAKER_01: There might be.
1:06:49
SPEAKER_01: So less opportunity to sure.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we can be fairly realistic with the competent advisor status, you know, period.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_00: Because we we we need to make sure we observe a certain number of you know first meetings with a client, yeah, uh, and a number of presentation, what we call presentation meetings, uh second meetings, um, and and other other things.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_00: So we have a certain number that we need to do.
1:07:15
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, if somebody was running their own business and self-generating all their business, those uh client meetings might be you know less common, less frequent.
1:07:23
SPEAKER_00: So it might take longer.
1:07:24
SPEAKER_01: We can't predict the future, but I think you know, working in recruitment for the last 14 years and having my own business as well, clearly defining a process of uh career development or a career framework or where you're going and trying to attach a realistic time scale to things, yeah, I think it's just hugely important.
1:07:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and to be that transparent, I think is um is great that you've thought about it, you've looked at it and you've estimated correctly.
1:07:50
SPEAKER_01: So someone can look at it and go, right, okay, it's gonna take me that long to get from A to B.
1:07:55
SPEAKER_01: Hugely, hugely important because you know, especially on my podcast and talking to people, timescales are thrown around left, right, and centre.
1:08:02
SPEAKER_01: I've got somebody kind of on the podcast who's passed their qualifications in six months, therefore they think you know, someone listens to that and thinks I want to be an advisor in six months.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_01: And it's just totally unrealistic.
1:08:12
SPEAKER_01: Um, so thank you for breaking that down.
1:08:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think one of the things I would reinforce to anybody listening to this is this is a clear structure.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:08:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, and there are other clear structures out there, yeah, but this is clearly defined, and yeah, you know, and that's what you want when you're taking that step into being a financial planner.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, or even if you start out as an administrator moving on up the ranks up to a planner within a firm, is ask for a clearly defined career progression chart.
1:08:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:08:40
SPEAKER_01: Because it's going to make your life a million times easier and take the guesswork out of it.
1:08:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:08:44
SPEAKER_01: Okay, granted, you have a little bit of a career's advice there from me.
1:08:46
SPEAKER_01: This is a careers-based podcast as well, isn't it?
1:08:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, right.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:08:51
SPEAKER_01: I think you've pretty much summed up everything that I wanted to know about the MG Wealth Academy.
1:08:58
SPEAKER_01: Now, let's bring me back into the play in this mythical financial planner that I am.
1:09:03
SPEAKER_01: I've gone through your academy three years down the line, I've minimum earned 75,000.
1:09:08
SPEAKER_01: I've seen loads of clients, I've got my competent advisor status.
1:09:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm no longer supervised, but you're still giving me some support.
1:09:15
SPEAKER_01: Fast forward the years, I've gone grayer and grayer, and I'm maybe I'm uh thinking about my own personal exit out of the profession.
1:09:24
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:09:25
SPEAKER_01: Or even thinking a little bit before that, yeah, that I'm looking to maybe grow my business, employ some people.
1:09:30
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at that.
1:09:31
SPEAKER_01: What do you do to support me and my business?
1:09:33
SPEAKER_01: A, to grow it, but B, to perhaps exit out of the profession.
1:09:38
SPEAKER_01: What does an exit look like?
1:09:40
SPEAKER_00: Really good question.
1:09:41
SPEAKER_00: So I think yeah, if we if we visualize you um going through the academy, flying through, no doubt, Sam, and doing everything uh first time.
1:09:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:09:51
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we you'd be up and running.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_00: You would you would still always have a supervisor, by the way.
1:09:56
SPEAKER_00: So any all financial advisors will be supervised in some way.
1:09:59
SPEAKER_00: It's just the the level of intensity of that supervision depending on your experience.
1:10:04
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, pre-CAS, that is more intense than post-uh CAS.
1:10:10
SPEAKER_00: So you'll still be supervised.
1:10:12
SPEAKER_00: What we would want to do is is support you to grow your business and how you wanted to.
1:10:16
SPEAKER_00: You might not want to grow your business, you might want to stay as a as just you know, Sam running his own business and doing everything yourself.
1:10:23
SPEAKER_00: But of course, your talent will be seeing clients and spending time with clients and doing their needs.
1:10:31
SPEAKER_00: Your talent might not be uh doing all the back office administration and research and documentation and reports, all those other things.
1:10:40
SPEAKER_00: So, what you could do, uh, you know, just as an option, is you could look to uh hire an administrator or uh uh some support people within your business, where you pay them a salary or you you you pay them a you know an alley rate, whatever you decide to do with them, and they can help relieve you of some of your work.
1:10:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, what that would mean is you probably could increase the capacity you have to deal with more clients so you could grow your business.
1:11:07
SPEAKER_00: And if that's what you wanted to do, then we could help you market your business.
1:11:12
SPEAKER_00: We would still hopefully be able to provide you with some leads as well.
1:11:16
SPEAKER_00: It would be a fairly low number, but it enough to help add, you know, um new clients uh into your business.
1:11:24
SPEAKER_00: And we'd obviously help you market that.
1:11:26
SPEAKER_00: Now you might end up uh, you know, we we've got advisors now that sponsoring their children's football teams, for example.
1:11:33
SPEAKER_00: So they've got their logo and brand across the front of their shirt.
1:11:36
SPEAKER_00: You might promote yourself through social media and create social media platforms.
1:11:39
SPEAKER_00: You've obviously got your website, you might do podcasts, you might um, you might advertise in um magazines, whatever you whatever you choose to do.
1:11:48
SPEAKER_00: And we can provide, we've got a marketing team that can provide, you know, templated, um, ready, ready to use, compliance approved material uh that you can literally, you know, redesign slightly and um and get out there and try and encourage more clients to come along to you.
1:12:07
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully over time, what you'd see is you building up your client client base, um, obviously within a capacity that keep you know that you can manage because there are obligations in there to make sure that you provide a brilliant service to the to those clients on a regular basis, as you'd agreed with them in terms of the fees that you uh you charge to them.
1:12:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then you get to the point where you get a bit older and you decide, actually, I'm gonna either take a step back or even retire.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, at that point, we are uh we have the ability for you to actually then pass your clients to somebody who has come through the academy, for example.
1:12:47
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:12:47
SPEAKER_00: So, in fact, we didn't mention that the other way around.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_00: But the other option would be that for somebody that's coming through the academy in a quick way for them to grow their client bank is to find somebody who's retiring.
1:12:58
SPEAKER_00: We can help them do that, and then effectively pass those clients on from the retiring advisor to a young and aspiring advisor who might be or has the capacity to take those clients on.
1:13:10
SPEAKER_00: And there would be an agreement in terms of the value of the of the uh business that you be passing on.
1:13:16
SPEAKER_00: So that individual we well, we we would effectively pay you for those clients, we'd pass them on to somebody else, and we would reclaim that cost back from that individual over time.
1:13:26
SPEAKER_00: So we we would call that a client or advisor ecosystem.
1:13:30
SPEAKER_00: Um it for from a client's perspective, that's great as well because you've got to the point of retiring.
1:13:36
SPEAKER_00: Your clients don't have to go, oh no, you know, what do I do now?
1:13:39
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna be my advisor?
1:13:40
SPEAKER_00: No, we'll we'll help them and you'll pass them on to somebody who you trust who's gonna follow the same uh you know um processes you've had previously and and give that same level of client experience to those clients that you've built and grown and worked with over a number of times, which are important to you.
1:13:58
SPEAKER_00: You might you'll have very strong relationships with them, so you'll want the best for them, and uh you'll have the ability to pass them on to somebody who is going to treat them in that same way with the same care and attention that you've done over many years, and you will be able to depart and head off into the sunset.
1:14:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
1:14:15
SPEAKER_00: That sounds good.
1:14:16
SPEAKER_00: It does sound good, doesn't it?
1:14:17
SPEAKER_01: It does sound good, but I you know I'm gonna wish my life away.
1:14:19
SPEAKER_01: I'm quite happy with my life right now in the present.
1:14:21
SPEAKER_01: Um, that's really uh good to hear, and I think um I love that ecosystem that you've got there of advisors passing business on to other advisors, continuity there for the client is is huge.
1:14:30
SPEAKER_01: It's the same name, isn't it, essentially, behind it.
1:14:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think really changes apart from the advisor, really.
1:14:35
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
1:14:35
SPEAKER_00: And and so what what I mentioned is that so coming through the academy, and one of the benefits of the academy, of course, will provide the leads to help them build up the their own client bank.
1:14:45
SPEAKER_00: But once they get to a point where they are competent and they are you know experienced enough, they will be eligible at that point to be able to buy effectively buy a client bank that's being you know recycled back from somebody who's retiring.
1:14:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, it might take a period of time for them to pay that back, but effectively that will be their client bank.
1:15:04
SPEAKER_00: So it could be that somebody through coming through the academy, you know, uh during that three and a half year period, you know, at three years or three and a half years, could inherit then a you know a substantial client bank and have a fully blown, you know, business that they then operate and run and they are in control of.
1:15:24
SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
1:15:25
SPEAKER_00: Brilliant opportunity.
1:15:25
SPEAKER_01: So like an acquisition, it's uh it's a you know, an internal acquisition, if you like, and it's a great way to for me to grow my business.
1:15:31
SPEAKER_01: I've got people within the business that are already thinking about where the placement of Canada clients that are perhaps underneath an advisor who's looking to retire.
1:15:38
SPEAKER_01: You can manage the exit, you can manage my exit, you can make it nice and easy and smooth.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_01: We used to do, I set up a Gunnar Co.
1:15:44
SPEAKER_01: which is an acquisition business a while back in the IFA world, and it's tricky.
1:15:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:15:48
SPEAKER_01: Um advisors do have this deep relationship with their clients, and they don't want to just pass it over to the top seller.
1:15:54
SPEAKER_01: Some do, you know, top buyer, sorry.
1:15:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, some do, some don't.
1:15:57
SPEAKER_01: And um, I think having that in place is just a lovely way to um leave the profession in a way that makes you feel like you're doing right by your clients, correct?
1:16:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's just that's a really nice thing to do.
1:16:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, loving the idea also as well of um helping me grow my business.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, the fact that you were able to introduce new clients to me, even as early as me coming through the academy stage.
1:16:18
SPEAKER_01: I think there's something else here as well.
1:16:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm an ambitious chap.
1:16:20
SPEAKER_01: I like to grow a business and I want employees.
1:16:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, let's not forget that I can use the academy as my academy, essentially, like an outsourced academy to bring people through, perhaps.
1:16:31
SPEAKER_01: And you might say, look, you know, John's coming through the academy, uh, Debbie's coming through the academy.
1:16:38
SPEAKER_01: They want to be self-employed, perhaps, but they don't want to run their own business.
1:16:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:16:43
SPEAKER_01: Can they plug into your business?
1:16:45
SPEAKER_01: Is there an opportunity there for me as well to uh benefit from the academy and the people coming through to help me grow my business, my my AR practice?
1:16:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
1:16:53
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, it there is a challenge out there for the financial advisors running their own businesses out in the vice market, advice uh sector.
1:17:03
SPEAKER_00: And you know, there is there is a challenge for a small businesses, small businesses to grow and bring in other advisors and other other people into their businesses.
1:17:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, financial advisors don't necessarily make great managers and trainers that you know their expertise is giving advice to clients.
1:17:21
SPEAKER_00: It's not training other people on how to do it.
1:17:23
SPEAKER_00: Some might be great at it, but some might struggle.
1:17:26
SPEAKER_00: So, what we uh what we can certainly do for our our appointed reps, our um our advisor businesses, is uh is give them that facility.
1:17:35
SPEAKER_00: So if one of our existing advice firms comes to me and says, Look, I want to recruit, on a grow, um, I've got this person that is is great, great candidate, we'll take them through the selection process for the academy.
1:17:46
SPEAKER_00: And if they're successful, we'll do the training for them.
1:17:49
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we'd expect the uh the principal of that AR of the um firm to help mentor and coach and help give them some advice and guidance on how to how to move forward and how to progress.
1:18:02
SPEAKER_00: Of course, they you'd expect them to do that because they're experienced advisors themselves.
1:18:06
SPEAKER_00: But in terms of the actual coaching and training and the qualifications and the supervision, we'll do all that for them.
1:18:12
SPEAKER_00: Um so we can absolutely help any advice firms that are part of the MNG Wealth Advice network to really grow grow their business, which might be an opportunity for um other advisors out there to come and join MNG Wealth Advice.
1:18:27
SPEAKER_00: If they're existing experienced advisors with their clients or whatever, they could come to MNG Wealth Advice.
1:18:32
SPEAKER_00: We can help them grow.
1:18:33
SPEAKER_00: We've got the obviously the um the sort of practice buyout scheme, the succession planning, allowing them to go and retire and recycle their clients back to somebody else within the business as well.
1:18:43
SPEAKER_00: So there is that other aspect there as well, academy aside.
1:18:46
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
1:18:47
SPEAKER_01: I want to finish on just really the MNG culture.
1:18:50
SPEAKER_01: So, what is the culture of MNG?
1:18:52
SPEAKER_01: You've been here for quite some time.
1:18:53
SPEAKER_01: We're sitting in some beautiful offices in central London.
1:18:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, the role itself that we're talking about here, going through the academy, it really opens itself up to flexible working.
1:19:01
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's um a big demand now, isn't there, for more females coming into the financial planning profession?
1:19:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, what's the culture like here at MNG?
1:19:10
SPEAKER_01: We talked about inclusivity, we talked about diversity, and you know, there is no discrimination from anybody coming through that academy focus.
1:19:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, what do you feel like the culture is like at MNG?
1:19:21
SPEAKER_01: Is it is it forward-thinking?
1:19:22
SPEAKER_01: Is it um you know, is it really what we're looking to try and promote out there at the moment?
1:19:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, very much so.
1:19:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, MNG as a business has has its own values and uh and behaviours that they they would like employees to adopt and anybody associated with the business.
1:19:39
SPEAKER_00: So, as an example, though those values are uh very specifically care and integrity.
1:19:44
SPEAKER_00: And then there's other you know, behaviors that the the wider business would expect people to adopt.
1:19:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they have a vision of the future as well.
1:19:52
SPEAKER_00: And it is very much uh about being you know inclusive and flexible and collaborative and caring and these various various things.
1:20:00
SPEAKER_00: Within M and G Wealth Advice, specifically, as our our part of the business, we actually um we actually looked at what is what is the culture of our business.
1:20:10
SPEAKER_00: So we actually took a group of um uh of advisors and some of the staff that work within uh M and G Wealth Advice, and we sort of challenged them with coming up with what is our culture, what are what are the things that that come from that?
1:20:24
SPEAKER_00: And we came out with a list of 10 key words, actually, all that begin with the letter C.
1:20:30
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:20:31
SPEAKER_00: So it was things like caring and collaborative, commercial, good communication.
1:20:36
SPEAKER_00: I can't remember all of them, but that that's the sort of thing.
1:20:39
SPEAKER_00: So we have got what we call the spirit of wealth advice.
1:20:42
SPEAKER_00: It is actually a kind of charter that we created based on the people that work within the business.
1:20:47
SPEAKER_00: So that's a really good indication of what that's you know all about.
1:20:51
SPEAKER_00: In terms of um, yeah, flexibility and a community, we have really built a community.
1:20:56
SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about firms that were wanting to grow, for example, and develop themselves, we we have a community where others have already done that and they're they're happy to share their experiences and what they've learned and their ambitions with others.
1:21:09
SPEAKER_00: So we've got this fantastic community of people that are doing that.
1:21:14
SPEAKER_00: And when we talk about inclusivity, you know, absolutely, um, just going off on a slightly side subject.
1:21:20
SPEAKER_00: I think the the number of females in financial advice is lower than you would expect.
1:21:24
SPEAKER_00: I think across the industry it's about 16%.
1:21:27
SPEAKER_00: I've I've read recently.
1:21:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, our academy and our advice business is more around 25%.
1:21:33
SPEAKER_00: So we're slightly ahead of the trend.
1:21:35
SPEAKER_00: Now there are lots of perceptions that females have around financial advice as a profession.
1:21:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we did our own research, online research, but also uh discussing these reasons with our own advice population.
1:21:51
SPEAKER_00: And um, and there are, you know, there are perceptions about advice uh which maybe put females off.
1:21:58
SPEAKER_00: So what we're really, really trying to do is support some of our female business owners to really trailblaze and show what they're capable of.
1:22:07
SPEAKER_00: So when somebody does come to us, uh, you know, female and thinks, oh, you know, I don't, it's not really for me because of whatever reasons, we can say, well, look, this is what these, you know, other other businesses have done.
1:22:18
SPEAKER_00: And there is no reason why you can't do that as well, and no barriers to it.
1:22:21
SPEAKER_00: So we would support anybody to join uh the business.
1:22:24
SPEAKER_00: We've got obviously we we need to take them through the process of making sure that they are the right type of candidate for everyone's benefit, by the way.
1:22:31
SPEAKER_00: It's no good that we take people who we think aren't going to make it because they lose, we lose, you know, every everybody loses from it.
1:22:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, we've we've got a really uh forward-thinking, uh innovative culture uh within MNG.
1:22:46
SPEAKER_00: Um and yeah, it's a really exciting future ahead of us.
1:22:49
SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
1:22:50
SPEAKER_01: Tom, sign me up, get the paperwork out, let's let's join up.
1:22:53
SPEAKER_01: But no, honestly, fantastic talking to you today.
1:22:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, you've really gone into detail.
1:22:58
SPEAKER_01: I think anybody listening to this podcast, watching it on YouTube, is going to get a really great understanding, not just of what you guys do and how you do it, but really also the entry point, the entry point, and I think I guess the standards also of what to expect when swapping one career for another or embarking on it um as a brand new career, say as a graduate.
1:23:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:23:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, inclusivity, absolutely love that.
1:23:20
SPEAKER_01: It's open to absolutely everybody.
1:23:22
SPEAKER_01: Now, I just want to reiterate, like, as I said at the beginning of the c uh of the call, so if anybody is interested in joining the MNG Wealth Academy, if you head over to the Financial Planner Life website and I'll put links in the comment section, um there's a lovely page there dedicated to what exactly MNG Wealth are doing, where you can watch this video and some other videos on the site that will give you a bit of an insight.
1:23:42
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to take that plunge and you want to sign up and go through that application stage, of which I've been told by the candidates that I put through, is absolutely exceptional.
1:23:50
SPEAKER_01: Click on the link.
1:23:51
SPEAKER_01: It's a very quick and easy application process, and we'll put you directly in contact with the guys there at MNG Wealth, and you can start your career in financial planning.
1:24:00
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.