Latest / Financial Planner Life Podcast / Paraplanning Disruptor - How 'Parapool' is creating a gig economy for Paraplanners! With Rebecca Livesey

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Paraplanning Disruptor - How 'Parapool' is creating a gig economy for Paraplanners! With Rebecca Livesey · Financial Planner Life Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: And today on the Financial Planner Life podcast, I've got Becky Livesey from a company called Powerpool.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: She is a disruptor in the financial planning space, specifically hyper-focusing on power planner disruption, and today we're going to talk about this brilliant, innovative business that she has set up that's saving financial planners a huge amount of money on their power planning.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: It's not outsourced, it's a gig community.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So if you're a power planner as well, check out this episode, because you're going to love what she's doing and it might interest you to change the way you're working as a power planner and enter the gig economy when it comes to power planning.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you think, becky.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I was about to call that the Paraplanner Life podcast, then Coming soon To Spotify near you.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Don't tell them, you know.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Let it be a surprise.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: But what a great gig.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: That would be the power planner life.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I wonder how many power planners would tune in it would be interesting to see.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Sure, I think there's.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: There's nothing really out there permanently for power planners, so yeah, yeah it could be interesting.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Could be interesting, couldn't it?
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: well, I'll tell you what.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Today you're here and we're going to talk about your power planner life and we're going to find out a little bit about what you've been up to, because you are an innovative disruptor.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: All these big words coming out now, entrepreneurial power planner we got speaking, didn't we?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: A couple of months back, I think, probably about a year ago now, about a year ago, now a year ago, yeah, yeah, and you and you told me about your plans.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Uh, because I saw on linkedin that you'd set up powerpool yes so first off, let's just go straight to the jugular.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: What is powerpool?
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: so powerpool is an online marketplace for paraplanning, so traditionally paraplanning services run on a set cost basis.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: So you go to either a company or an individual and there's a set pricing list and you pay for those services if you're outsourcing your paraplanning.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: What we do with Parapool is we have a number of paraplanners registered on the site and advisors are able to come to that site, post a case that they want paraplaning support for and, rather than being a set pricing structure, paraplanners then bid for that work.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: What that means is typically up to 40% saving versus our biggest competitors, because the paraplanners are retaining that work directly, so they're able to quote low levels and still, you know, kind of get a good deal for them.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: It's a great deal for the advisor.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Plus, the advisor is fully in control as well of who they work with and which is brilliant because they can see who's made bids, how much the bids are and a full profile on each power planner that they would look to work with.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: So the quality of documentation and it's clear to see reviews that we've received from other advisors and the qualifications they hold and we're currently just within St James's Place space, so you can see their term with St James's Place as well.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: So we like to call ourselves kind of like a checker trade of paraplanning.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: That's the same kind of theory behind it.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Kind of like a paraplanner, marketplace, right checker, trade.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I get it yeah of like a power planner marketplace right Checker trade.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I get it Exactly that yeah, okay, that's exactly it.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: In every other space that you can look around, there's Cinch for cars, there's Rightmove and Zoopla for houses, there's Checker Trade for trades, and there was nothing in our space, so it just made sense.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Why do you think there is a space for this?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: power planning costs to employ power.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: To take it further back, power planning in itself used to be purely a gateway into advising and so you had high turnover power planners and in recent years it's becoming more and more established as a standalone profession and, whether that be advice companies or direct advisors employing their own power planners or outsourcing to other companies, it's certainly a standalone profession and as it's become more so, it's becoming more and more expensive.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: So when I first started power planning, you could take on a power planner for maybe 25 35 000 pounds a year as kind of a max, and if you look around the marketplace now, if you're looking to employ a power planner, you're looking at least 35.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: That's kind of.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: You know you're really pushing it there up to anything kind of 60k plus for an experienced, well-qualified power planner.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: So the space we fit into are we're taking away that headache of one having to employ somebody and all the HR and pensions and benefits and things like that, and you have to get involved with and and it's also quite a difficult role to effectively staff for in-house because you have periods such as tax year-end and this time of year is quite busy for us as well as power planners because people get in towards the year-end and they really want to push through a load of business and summer months can be quite quiet.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: So to to effectively staff in house and maintain a, you know, a relatively consistent service level is really difficult, and so that's why power pool fits in nicely, that one.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: You don't want to employ a power planner.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You can use this as and when you need.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You can use it for every single case that you ever write or you can use it to help an in-house power plan team during busy periods for overflow, to cover gaps that we had somebody the other day sign up and their power plan is going on maternity leave.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So they don't want to give somebody else kind of a full-time work present time and then drop them again.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: But because this is a marketplace and you can work with whoever you like, there's no obligation.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: You're not feeling kind of morally obliged to um, to maintain someone's lifestyle really, and they're living so you can pick it up and you can put it down as an employer whenever you need it.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: So let's say, for example all of a sudden you're a, you're a growing firm, you're relying upon your power planner right vital part of the business but unfortunately, that power planner goes sick for two weeks and there is no chance that they can do any work.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they've got to drop everything.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden you're in a pickle and you're thinking how are we going to do this now?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: we can all do it ourselves, or that's going to impact our business absolutely yeah or we go into power pool and we be put put our bit of work on there and do they put a price on there of what they're looking for, or do they put the work on there and the power planners bid?
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: So you put the work on there so say you've got a pension transfer case, for example.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: You pop on there, I've got a pension transfer case, it's all laid out kind of a little flow through, so it has a number of transfers.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: A bit about the case itself there's a notes section so you can add notes in there if there's anything kind of obscure or any detail that you want that you think is relevant to the cost of the case.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: And another important factor is that as an advisor you set the time limit as well.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So again, a lot of the time with the traditional methods you put in your case it goes into a queue and it's worked on kind of in order, unless you're really trying to pull some strings with parapool.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: You say, right, I've got this pension transfer case and I want to see them again on the 13th of november and you're only then going to get bids from para planners that can work to that time scale.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: So that's quite effective too, especially with quicker turnaround cases.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: You know you last minute are they're going to see someone tomorrow and they want to sign up an ISA.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: I need the report.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: You're going to find someone that can do that by tomorrow.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I think the quickest one we've seen in terms of a hefty case was somebody posted on a Wednesday I need a pension transfer, I need a draft report by Friday and it was done.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: And there aren't many services you can go to where you can get that really quick turnaround what's interesting there as well from a power planner perspective.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I suppose there is a supply and demand aspect here as well.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: So if somebody does want something relatively difficult to do it's going to take a fair bit of time within a 24 hour period because they've got a big meeting coming up or something then that power planner could bid a bit higher.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: If the competition, for example, is not there now, how do we maintain this?
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you loads of questions about this right, because it's I think it's worthwhile.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: How do you maintain that it's not a race to the bottom when it comes to fees?
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: yeah.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: So that's where I think, as power planners ourselves myself and my sister run the business and as power planners ourselves, on a kind of a separate note we obviously really value, we see the value in power planners time.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: So that's something we definitely wanted to avoid and for that reason, for each case type there's a minimum bid level.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: So power planners, although they're bidding and they're saying what they would be willing to do work for based on the case that's being posted, they can't physically bid below a certain amount, specifically because you know you might get somebody that that's doing absolutely that, doing a race to the bottom and not valuing not only their time properly, but that then devalues everybody else's time as well and qualifications and experience and everything else that the power plans bring to the table.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's how we do it.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: We've got a minute bid level.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Brilliant, okay, so I'm a power planner and I'm using that and I'm logging in and I'm logging into an ecosystem where I can see a selection of jobs.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I'm probably notified.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Am I?
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Am I notified through an app?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Am I notified via text?
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: How am I notified about those jobs?
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, by email.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: So there's an email every day goes out with the list of cases that haven't already been accepted.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So anything that's still open is emailed out at the end of every day.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: What we tend to find are a lot of power planners that are regularly using the platform.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: They're like snipers, you know.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: So you, there's a maximum of five bids per case that goes onto the platform, just so advisors aren't inundated with uh, with bids, and we would typically see all five bids received within 24 hours of the case being posted.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Does the power planner have to pay any money or any subscription to be part of this community?
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: No, it's entirely free to use on both sides.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: So the way that the fee structure works, this is a big question we get when we say it's free for power planners, it's free for advisors, people are like how do you make make money?
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: So it's a commission basis.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: So a parapaner bids x amount.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Say they bid 200 pounds for a case, a small commission's added and then the price that the advisor sees is that total price including VAT.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: So the parapaner knows exactly what they're going to earn from the case.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: The advisor knows exactly what they're going to pay and that won't change and what protection is in place for the client who is booking the services of the power planner if, say, for example, a complaint is raised or there is a problem or service level agreements aren't met?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: so that again comes back to grace, my sister and I being power planners ourselves, we can kind of use ourselves as backup.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: So there's only been one instance so far where somebody got in contact with us to say this power plan has agreed to do a case and I'm not getting any contact back.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: I really need to see the client.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Because we're power planners, we can step in and take over that for them.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Um, they're very quick notice of sort of prioritize that um really haven't won so far to afford, but uh, yeah, so it's.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I think we're very well positioned to deal with that are you creating a community within the community of power planners?
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Is it collaboration, competition, stroke collaboration, or is it competition, or is there a?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Is there a collaboration between?
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Do you, guys and girls all talk to each other, or is it competition, or is there a?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Is there a collaboration between?
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Do you guys and girls all talk to each other, or is it strictly business?
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: so it's currently strictly business.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: It is very much a competition in terms of it, kind of in the view that everyone's bidding on cases and looking to win business for themselves, and but that's something that we're looking at a number of developments over the next kind of few months, over the next year or two, and that's something that we're looking at, a number of developments over the next kind of few months, over the next year or two.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: And that's something that we're really considering is creating a community within the space for the power planners.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Again, something I think is lacking out there for power planners at the minute is not lacking.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: There are definitely communities, but we're working currently within a very specific space.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: So within St James's Place it's a vast business.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: But in terms of paraplying support on a realistic level, other than going on courses and things with St James's Place just on a day-to-day you know, if I'm a self-employed paraply just taking my work from Parapool and I'm working by myself at home every day, it could be quite isolating.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: I think that's a lot the situation for a lot of the power planners using it.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Um, so, adding in some kind of community space, uh, kind of like a board, a sounding board there where people can ask questions like you had this before.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: What should I do in this scenario?
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: That kind of thing?
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: kind of frequently asked questions type environment very good like a live feed that people can post into and answer each other's questions and get that sense of community.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool, it's a picked up on something there and obviously I know this, but our listeners will be picking up on it as well and that is the.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: You mentioned st james's place.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: So so are you only available to st james's place partners, or are you available to the wider financial planning community, including IFAs, for example?
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: It's currently just within St James's Place and over the kind of medium term very much.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: It's our aim to open up to the wider space and we're certainly starting to get demand through for that as well and people asking can I sign up?
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: And you're having to say, ah, sorry, you can't, not within St James's Place.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: So there's definitely a market for that and it's something we're looking to move into and it's looking to, yeah, perfect within St James's Place, within an environment we know really well for us just our background Really get it kind of nailed, working like a smooth operation Okay.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: It's like your trainee ecosystem in an environment that you know.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, and we can kind of test out in this environment that we know things such as a power planning community, adding potential, training, help and video support, all those kind of things.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Test out in a situation and an environment that we know inside out what works and what people are really valuing or positioning to the wider market.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: So a couple more questions about this.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I can hear the fire engine in the background.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: By the sounds of it, someone's on fire.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: It's too hot.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: I didn't say police, but in Dubai I don't think you ever need the police, do you really they?
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: drive around in cyber trucks probably Cyber trucks and Porsches and Lamborghinis.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: You never see the police.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Actually, I don't know where they actually are.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: You never see them, they're just hidden.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because people are in clothes everywhere.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Got another question so the power planners that use your community, are they power planners and administrators, or is it just power planners?
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: So they are predominantly power planners.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: What we do find is there's the option this is another big topic we get from advisors looking to use the platform can I get help with seeding information?
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: That's like the number one question we're getting.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: And absolutely yes, you can.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: So when you're posting a case, one of the specific questions it goes through is have you obtained full plan information?
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Do you want support with this?
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Have you got partial information?
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: You want file notes gathering?
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Do you want to send in an LOA and have the parallel planner gather all the plan information?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: And again, the parallel planners will just quote based on the work involved.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: So yeah, you can come.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: You can have seen a client upload your CFR.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: You can actually have the CFR uploaded as well.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Your fact find can be uploaded as part of the case.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Again, you just tell that to the system as you're inputting your case.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: So you can see a client pop a case on there and then, once you've selected your power planners and then the LOA and they deal with everything from there until you get the case approved and off, you go back to sign up your client approved and off you go back to sign with your client.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, and do the advisors expect the power planner to also communicate directly with the client, or is that not something that's offered?
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Not particularly, I wouldn't expect.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: So we kind of as running the site, don't get too involved in that process.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Once it's gone and they've been matched up and they get on with the case, we don't tend to hear much more until it's complete.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: But yeah, that's I think within the st james place structure, power planners aren't all that frequently involved in speaking with clients.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: I think about it, maintain that relationship themselves, um, but it's again, it's there to be used and once you've slept with a power planner, it's that open dialogue.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: And if they're saying, I don't know, I need to say it, pinching forecast, what can you really about the client for it?
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: I can't see that that would be okay, you set this up right with your sister.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Both power planners.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what?
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: What triggered you to do this?
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Why set it up?
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: So something must have.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: You must have gone.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: There's an opportunity there.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Is it a personal experience?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Is it an experience of others?
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: You've been around.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: What's your reason for setting up power pool?
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: so it actually started laying on a sunbed in santorini.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: So I was, I'd been at a friend's wedding.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: I was away I don't think I had my laptop with me and Grace, my business partner and sister, was calling me.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: We had one of our clients wanting a mortgage case I think it was from memory and it needed to be written that day.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: And it's really hectic, let's go, let's go, let's go.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: And we had a lot of that going on.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: We were at max capacity in terms of the clients we could take on board and she called me.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: There's nothing I could do to help.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: So obviously the phone goes down.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: She's really stressed and then laid there on this sunbed just churning over ideas like how can we get past this?
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: We keep getting these last many cases.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: We're absolutely kind of working our socks off late nights, early mornings.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: We we need some kind of assistance to keep providing this service, and so our first thoughts were around kind of a fast lane, maybe set up a website where for the last minute cases, emergency cases people could post them and pay a premium for the service.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: And it just rolled from there and developed into actually, why not just encompass all cases, open it up for anybody can access this in terms of paraplanners, anyone can access it in terms of advisors.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: So we started to put that together, started developing a site to do that it was originally going to be called Paradox and to kind of gauge interest, we started a LinkedIn campaign around that, which is where you first messaged me from.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: But as part of that, we were contacted by a guy called Joe Wilcox and he messaged just to say I can see what you're doing and I have something kind of similar and it'd be good to have a chat.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: So we jumped on Teams, as you do.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: It turns out they had something very similar, which was PowerPool, that he, as a St James Place advisor, didn't have the time to run anymore.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: One of the other business partners and hamish is now part of the sjp investment management team, so wasn't allowed to work on it as part of his contract.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: So rather than starting from the ground up and having to go through the development costs and everything ourselves, we struck out a deal to take over a platform that was already there and just not so well known.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: So our mission now is bringing that forward to, firstly, to people that haven't heard of it it's here, it's great, come give us a go, and secondly, to advisors that have used it in the past.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: So it'd been running a couple of years and had a lot of teething problems, and so we speak to a lot of people that are like, oh yeah, now I used it a couple of years ago and I couldn't pay invoices or I couldn't do this or I couldn't, and it was fully redeveloped at the end of last year.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: So it's getting that message across that if you think you've used it before, it's entirely different.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: It works, which helps.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Um yeah, so, uh, fully rebranded and kind of taken on as our own now, okay, and we're just looking to run and develop it from here.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Got some more questions about the kind of the way to use it, I guess, and what maybe a client might be thinking what are the payment terms?
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Do they pay up front or do they pay afterwards when the work is done?
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: How does it work?
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: On case completion.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: So for cases that don't need pre-approval, I'm not sure um how it works in the fa world specifically, but within st james's place they guarantee your advice.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: So certain case types go through a checking process with st james's place before you can write the business, and so the classes pre-approval cases and post-approval cases.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: So post-approval cases.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: So post-approval would be like your cash cases, mortgages, protection, where nobody needs to see that before you've backed the business.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: So as soon as your report's finished job done, they can invoice at that stage.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: And for pre-approval cases that need to go for checking, the case has to be submitted by the power planner to the checking team and once it's approved, at that point they can invoice.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: So yeah, it's got to be the case fully completed, it's at the end of the line, pass back to the advisor and then they can send their invoice by the platform how quickly is the power planner paid?
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: what's the average payment time scale?
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: the contract say, I think within seven days.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Uh, but yeah, no issues with payment in terms of, from a power planning perspective, the advisor gets the invoice.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: They want it off their table.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: As much as you want to get paid like, you don't want these things through renova.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, super smooth, can we?
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: put in we, can you put in a 48 hour payment term?
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Or, literally, to be able to release, release it, a payment has to be made because if I was a power planner and I wanted to jump on and earn some.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: So let's say, for example, I'm struggling with money, or I'm saving up for a house, or I want to go on holiday and I'm thinking to myself, I could earn some quick cash at the weekend jumping into powerpoint, right yeah, absolutely yeah, but I want my money quite quickly.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: I want to to be transactional.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Waiting seven days is a bit of a chunky old timescale.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Can that not be changed, do you think?
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: If we've got power plan feedback looking for that, then it's absolutely.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I would 100% say that every single one of those would want that and that would be a huge USP is the speed that they have to pay.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: This is what I'm saying.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Do they pay 50% upfront and they pay 50% afterwards?
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like there has to be a quicker.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: For me to make this even more special, it's almost kind of like it's like instant cash, so the reward becomes even greater for somebody to sign up to your community and do some work.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: It's like wow, within 24 hours I can get 500 quid.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I really want to buy that handbag or something like that.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: You know I'm assuming all your power planners and women just want to buy handbags, but you know what I mean.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: You might want to buy that car or something you know you want to put some contribution ahead of it yeah, so car with your 500 pounds, that's for sure.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: No, exactly what you know.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, what is the average case?
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: What's the average size then that people are earning on there for each case?
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: It's hard to say because they vary so vastly.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: So cash cases it could be around the £100 mark for a quick case.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: There are some on there like defined benefit schemes go through anywhere from £900,000 and everything in between for your pension transfers drawdown.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: So there's no particular average case.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: There isn't an average case, so it's hard to say an average case fee.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Because it would vary per case.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: But, pension transfers, for example, they're running through the system on average below the £300 mark, which, compared to the rest of the industry, is, yeah, really a really good saving.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: So £300, around the £300 mark for a pension transfer.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: A bit of business.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: I think the average is £274 on a pension transfer case.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: So the average is £274 on your system.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, On our system.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Across St James' Place you're looking at £400 to £450, usually for a pension transfer case.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: What?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: On an outsourced basis or on like, if you were to work On an outsourced basis.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, On an outsourced basis.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Really really interesting, then.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: So this is really really useful for those partners that are just setting up who haven't got the money to say, employ a power planner, right?
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: yeah, exactly that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: And a big focus for us has been advisors coming in starting st james place, through the academy, through the growth and development team, because precisely that, they're in kind of a crossroads where you need that support.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Um, because you might not know how to get a case through the checking system and how the kind of the nuances of the checking team, but equally, you don't have maybe the backing so far to employ your own power planner.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: You might not want to employ a power planner, so it provides that perfect stepping stone in.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Just like we said before, you pick it up and use it and drop it when you don't need to use it.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: You're only going to be paying for a case that you know is going to pay you, um, which is brilliant as well.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Uh, we've actually grace and I've done a lot of work with advisors coming through the academy, so something that we've picked up on as well is a lot of advisors like to learn the ropes themselves.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: They do want to write a few of their own cases to get a feel for it and see what needs to go in and why is a power planner asking for this and I really know the process inside out.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: So what we've added to PowerPool as well as a checking service.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: So if I'm a new advisor coming through the academy I want to know what goes into a pension transfer case.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: I want to really get a feel for that.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: I've written my own case but I'm sending that into the check-in team with kind of on a wing and a prayer.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Instead of doing that, you can just post it on for a case check on PowerPool.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: So it's super, super cheap and a PowerPool that's dealing with pension transfer cases day in, day out can take a look over and think actually it sells far.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: So you need to do this, add that into your.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: That's missing, that calculation's wrong and send it back to you.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: So you're putting something into into business assurance, which is a checking team with with confidence, I must say that's very clever way to also introduce your business very early on in somebody's journey, because they buy into the brand, they buy into what you're doing and as and when their uh earnings hit this but you know, you know uh, their turnover within their business hits a certain threshold where they can start actually passing it to you to do uh well, not you personally, but to power pool to have a power planners bid on it.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: They can and they could get to that point quicker because the average cost per case is lower within your community than it is if they went to an outsourced so or hired somebody.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: So you really really are undercutting the need to get an advisor on a power planner on in-house, undercutting the outsourced power planning companies.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: You are really coming in at a completely different level here, aren't you?
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: the different angle, yeah, and it's an angle that we feel really supports both sides equally.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: So for that very reason you've just gone through, we're supporting the advice team, and advisors can use this as and when they need.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Any time you need support for any type of case, it's there, and it's there very quickly and it's there at a great price and from a power planning perspective, if you're looking, I mean, I went through it myself, starting an outsourced power planning business, I suppose, and for myself it was before even linkedin, I'm pretty sure.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: So it was a case of call, calling advisors, searching for advisors in the area, sending out emails.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: If I'd have had something like Parapool where I could think, oh brilliant, I want to go out on my own or I want to earn some extra cash next to my employed role, I could just sign up to this.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: I can cherry pick cases and it's costing me nothing.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I would have jumped at the chance.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, we're really passionate about keeping that element of it, and the standard structure within outsourced power planning is that there's a fee split.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: So power planners are doing all the work and only receiving, say, 50%, 60% of the case fee, and the case fee has been set for them.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: So it's putting the power planner in control of how much they earn, how much work they want to do, and it's also putting the advisor in control of who they want to work with, because they can choose and how much they want to pay and when they want that case done by.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: They can even choose solid priorities.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: We've got some advisors prefer to work with um level four qualified power planners or chartered power planners and you can see that some people don't care about the qualifications so much but prefer to work with somebody that's worked at St James's Place for a very long time because they'll know the St James's Place ways inside out.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: So you're just fully in control as an advisor as to who you're working with and what qualities you're looking for in that as well.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: A couple of other things here as well.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: It's like a gig economy, right.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: So it's like the gig economy.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: It's like the delivery of power planning, right.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: If somebody needs to earn some extra money, they can go and work for delivery and they get paid there.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: And then that's why I was saying about the quick cash thing.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: If you can bring the quick cash thing in, it makes it even more attractive, right.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: But what it also does this power pool, as it grows and gets, gets bigger.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: It allows somebody to work flexibly, like true flexible working.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Now, in my head, that's brilliant for the mums and the dads that don't want to work full-time whilst they're looking after their children.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Within those first couple of years, it's for the power planner that might not need to work full time all the time.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: It's very good for the power planner that doesn't want to spend an hour every day traveling to and from work.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: It's the power planner who works better at night or in the morning.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: It's the person who might be unwell, right.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: The person who can't do a full day's work because they suffer from well, right?
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: The person who can't do a full day's work because they suffer from fibromyalgia or they might suffer from any other kind of debilitating illness.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: You could have a disability.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: You can't get out and in.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: It's very difficult, but you want to be able to work.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I think there's just so many layers of benefits as to why this type of system works in financial planning.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: So some of my other questions I've got going on in my head how far have you gone into exploring the wider outside of St James's Place?
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Have you actually started looking at the wider IFA community?
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Not as yet.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: We're currently I think we mentioned just before we started this month we've been on tour in the country.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: It feels like doing location meetings.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: We've got a stand-up location meeting just spreading the word and it's very much next in our agenda, once we've got acquired to November, december, to start looking into and exploring these different areas and speaking with paraplans using their platform and advisors using the platform to look at features that we think would be great to add.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Did they think?
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Because it's as much as you know.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: We think it's a good idea.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: If no one's going to use it, then you know what's the point.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: And so getting feedback around development of the site as it is within St James Place, but also starting to get those fields out, have some meetings and catch up with people and in the IFA world as well, to start to develop a kind of road map.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Can I?
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: also, can I also ask you some questions about communication?
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: So I'm a, I'm a financial advisor.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I go into the community, I uh put my gig out there and a power planner bids on it wins it.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Can I communicate directly to that individual?
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Can I phone them up?
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Can I video chat with them?
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Is that something that is there?
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: so, as soon as the bid is selected and you've both signed the so this is a kind of an important feature as well.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: There's every time you select a bid, the system automatically generates the GDPR in terms of engagement form, and they're both digitally signed by each side.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: So, from a compliance perspective, you're covered per case, not even per power planner, which is a big tick within the space case, not even just per power planner, which is a big tick um within the space.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, once that's been done, the system then releases full contact information to both parties for each other, and so then they'll contact each other via the St James Place mailing system by phone, as you would with any outsourced power planner that you use.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, they're available instantly.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: How do you protect yourself as a business that the individual doesn't start working directly with the partner currently, at the moment?
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: so this was a big kind of point of the yeah, of worry probably for us.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: But what we see and what is proven from speaking to power planners, is there's kind of a respect for the system in terms of advisors are appreciating I'm coming here, I'm getting great service, I'm getting a great price, so there's no need.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: I kind of want to go around that and, from a power planner's perspective, even more so they they're not coming to the platform because they're looking to work directly with an advisor.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: They're looking to coming to the platform because they're looking to work directly with an advisor.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: They're looking to to use the platform because they can get business from hundreds of advisors, if not thousands.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: So there's a real loyalty there.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: From the power planners perspective that we've got, we actually see it as well.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: There's a couple where an advisor wants to use a specific power planner and they'll text the power planner ahead and say I'm going to post a case, can you bid on it for me?
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: And they they work that way because the power plans are saying no, no, drive it through there, because that's where my bread and butter is and that is where I'm going to work.
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: We've come across one instance where somebody did try to bypass the system and they were lightly removed okay, so ultimately the power planner really should have.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tricky one, though, that, because I use fiverr from time to time and I've had people come through fiverr and you bid on there and you do it and you do the deal and then afterwards you start working with them via whatsapp because you know they earn more money.
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: This, whatever doesn't take their cut, so um, there is, absolutely it's a risk, yeah, and I've got no doubt that some cases along the line could be lost that way.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Um, I suppose there is a, there is a rate, my power planner uh kind of vibe here.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: So if I was a power planner that was working directly through and picking up the gigs through PowerPool, then I have a rating and feedback associated directly to me and if I wanted to win new business or not, put all my eggs in one basket with one individual.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: The whole point of the community is to be able to say I'm a power planner, I'm here when I want to work, I'm in control and check out my reviews.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I've worked for lots of different people, different things I've done and these are all the great reviews that I've got.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: So if you go direct, you're going to miss out on the opportunity to market yourself within that community and stand out as a trusted power planner, right?
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: So there we go, solved your problem.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: I should come on board stay on the platform exactly.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: It just makes total sense to actually do that.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: I suppose you could gamify it as well, couldn't you?
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: You know um league tables and all that kind of stuff, and it could be quite interesting to see who.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: It's a bit like that, um, school games.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Is it mark zacozi?
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Whatever his name is, he's like the bearded guy with the big muscles good looking chap.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: But he's got this thing called school days or school it's called, which is like a online community, um community to help people build communities.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, um, he can.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've not gone into it and dug around, but actually someone contacted me recently because I've got a post saying if anybody in school wants to build my community, give me a shout.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that they say is anybody in school wants to build my community, give me a shout.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that they say is that if you want to build a community partner with somebody who's a an influencer, already has one but doesn't actually have a community on the school, and then you could help that person and build it for them.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, that sounds really interesting, because I'm not massive fan of communities, but I love the idea of having one, and I just haven't got the time and energy to build it.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: So I was like that's kind of cool.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: When do you think you're going to be stepping into the IFA world then, or the world of outside of SJP, and are you allowed to Don't ask questions?
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know the answer to Sam, that's fine, you don't have to answer, that's OK.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I'm not sure.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: To be honest.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: It's absolutely um on kind of the game plan, but in terms of an actual time for that, I couldn't give a time and it's something that we're really looking to.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: I think it will be something that will be good to collaborate on, as opposed to, you know, try and launch into a world that we're not experts in already.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll be.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: We'll be very open to people kind of reaching out on that front.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: That will be interesting, are you okay?
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: for time.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: I'm digging questions at you.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: It's like a proper grilling right.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: It's like Dragon's Den, isn't it?
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: I quite enjoy it, only because I'm genuinely into it.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: I love.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: This is why I'm in this creative role.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: I love digging around and understanding things and looking for ways.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: There's so many things in my head that I could where, where value could be added.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: One of them is like you could definitely replicate this with other services within that power pool right.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: So the moment it's called power pool right, um, and it's about power planning, but you could replicate that model within the community for marketing yes, yeah, absolutely, that's something we've considered as well in the first instance.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: We've looked at, we've had chats with um a couple of meetings with some admin services outsource admin services, because that's becoming a really big space as well.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Um, all the back office things, the client packs, the review meetings and that kind of side of things is something that we're certainly looking um to add in.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, there are all sorts of features you could look to add um.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: I think it'd be like branded.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: You could do like branded marketing.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: You do podcast editing, there's, there's just, you know, email marketing.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: There's so many things that someone could buy that they might go to somewhere like a fiverr, but the problem when you go to somewhere like a fiverr no one.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: The problem when you go to somewhere like a Fiverr, no one understands financial planning.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: So if you have a marketplace that deals with everything which you would want as a business, right, kind of like a, you know, but I haven't got the money to do it and I want to be able to buy things when I need it, right, oh, I need that website done or I need this, so you put it in there.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Bosh, people come in who understand financial planning and would actually bid on it, and at least you've got somebody who is vetted, who understands financial planning, and it was also scored by other financial planners.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: They could turn around and say, yeah, we'll put that document together for you.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, we'll build that email chain for you.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll set up mail chimp for you and automate your email system.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: There's so many little things that can add value to these businesses, but they don't quite feel comfortable when they go outside of financial planning.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: One of the struggles that I've always found is it's like trying to find somebody on an outsourced basis.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: You understand financial planning, like so it's really hard yeah, that's something we've experienced ourselves, so it's a very good point that you're having to.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: You're spending half your meeting with somebody explaining what it is you do and why, as opposed to what you're wanting from their services.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a big struggle.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: It's a very, very good point.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: I have somebody that I can introduce you to who might be really worthwhile partnering with, and one hand would always wash the other hand in this scenario, because what they bring to the table is not what you're doing, and vice versa and it could be something really thin.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I could really see this as well being international.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: I'm happy with that.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: I'm happy to travel.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we're set up in dubai.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Um, I could see this being international.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Like you know, why can you deliver this type of service in somewhere like america?
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Is this out there?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: that I couldn't answer.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but it's absolutely achievable.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Like you say, the model itself, because it's of its simplicity and, you know, just makes sense.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: It is completely yeah because you would just go over to america and say, oh, we got power pool, but it's american version and you don't even have to know what you're talking about when it comes to power planning in america.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Because what does it matter?
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Because all you're doing is connecting clients with power planners.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: It's getting the understanding.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: You obviously contract with or collaborate with somebody in that space because, just as with St James' Place, we know the process, we know what advisors are looking for, we know the kind of stages and the the wording and and the kind of like the nuances of that business that's what we need to get in there to really show that you have an understanding of that space, so you're not in uh saying, yeah, come here for power planning, in just the same way as, like you said, with the fiverr issue that somebody then does.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: You know, we as the company don't fully understand that that space, but it's completely achievable.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: You can, you know you can cover that off in a couple of days with somebody but isn't that the same problem that a outsourced power planning company would have in the uk?
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: which they they're not knowing different.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, it's the same.
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing, isn't it?
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: they're working with multiple different companies, all with their own personal little brand and all their own ways of doing things yeah, it's the, the check-in systems and the um.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: What should I say here?
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: So, for example, within st james's place, the check-in team are called business assurance and the support staff are called pss, and the gradings are suitable, suitable with actions likely to be suitable, etc.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: Etc.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: And every check-in team, even within the IFA space, you'd usually subscribe to a compliance team.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: That kind of help keep you on track and everyone has their own technical terms and different ways of going about business, different ways of checking business, and that's where I think you need to have a good understanding before you just throw a system out there, so that you're not in exactly the same situation, she said with outsourcing beyond financial services, and don't really understand the terms, and you kind of got to yeah, we want to come up for a place of delivering a real quality system that understands you as an advisor and understands you as a power planner, fully, um, but that's where you can easily collaborate with people in that space and deliver that do you have experience of working as a financial planner?
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: yes, so I was.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: I started my career.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: I kind of fell into it.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: To be honest, I worked in a bank when I left college because I didn't really know what I wanted to do, thought it was no point going to uni and wasting time and money when I don't have an end goal with that.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: So I thought I'll just work in a bank for a while and figure out what I want to do.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: And I worked for the Halifax and there was one financial advisor in our branch that I worked in and he had his own office and he drove in a nice car and I thought, yeah, I'll, I want a bit of that, I'll do that.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Um.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: And I was told at the time it was 17, 18.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: And I was told, oh yeah, like a few years, and you can work your way up to that.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: I thought, oh, I don't really want to do it a few years, like I want it yesterday, um.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: So I qualified um within the bank.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: It's bank assurance.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: You kind of had to be approved by the bank assurance team and go through a vetting process to essentially be offered the role to then start training.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: So I was offered that when I was 20, as I qualified when I was 20.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: And they actually they had a space available when I just turned 21, in Scunthorpe, of all places.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: So I was traveling from Wakefield to Scunthorpe.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: That was a lot every day, but yeah, I loved it, really, really enjoyed it.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: And then, during RDR in 2012, they split the workforce and they divided divided between some people were staying as financial advisors and some were being divided off as financial what do they call them?
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: It was basically not advising roles.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: So you're giving out the same products, doing the same job, but you weren't allowed to advise, you just had to kind of follow this flow chart and I'd been the second highest performer in my area out of a team of about 14, I think it was.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: I'd only been in the role about 18 months and I was literally told last out, for sorry, last in, first out.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: So you're going to be a financial consultant.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: They were called financial consultant, which didn't quite sit well with me, um, uh.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: So yeah, you kind of look back and I think now there's no way I would take that now, but that's maybe a bit of youth, that I didn't really stand up for myself there because, apart from the, I'm pretty sure it's not legal, it's not a thing.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, you've only just started, so we're going to kick you out the role first, like, um, so yeah, then somebody I was working with how long were you in the role for?
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: pardon how long were you in the role for?
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: About 18 months at that point usually within the I think it's either within the first two years or first year.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: They can pretty much they can do the one can't they pretty much do what they want?
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah which helped me when I only when I owned a business Other way around.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: It's like no, yeah, yeah.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: It's like no, no, no, no, no.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: It was a little cold as well.
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, then I was working in a different branch with, ironically, the same advisor that I'd started.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: That was in the first branch I ever worked in that I saw as an advisor and thought I want to do that and he was leaving to go to St James' Place, um, and he was leaving to go to St James's Place and started in practice and said can I do you want to come along for the ride and run everything back office?
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: Um, which worked really well for me at the time.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I kind of went from there.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: All right, cool.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing all the information about Parapool, how it works, your journey with it and where you're going with it and why you created it.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Like genuinely, from the last time I spoke to you about a year ago to now.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: It's interesting.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: I think you pick something which is really really interesting and I love the innovation behind it and the reasons why.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: But I can only see benefit after benefit after benefit as well.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: It's just a really interesting model that's not there.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: That needs to be dominated and I think it's why you are massively positioned.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Look the way you're going with the sjp angle, because it's a big ego system.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: You can fine-tune processes.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: You can.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: You can understand how it all absolutely works before you start kind of tackling the wider market.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: You know, and I think proof of concept is really important.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: You know people want to see that proof because if you can turn around and say we've done this many gigs and this is our score and and all of that, it becomes a really powerful way to market that business then to the wider financial planning community and possibly internationally.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: This is like it's not.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: It's a system.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: It's not specific to the uk, it can be anywhere, it's not ever replicated anywhere yet the potential with it is massive.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: So we're in a space currently where there's about 4 600 advisors and there's a huge number of cases going through.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: But in terms of kind of the wider world, that's not a great deal of advisors numbers wise.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: So in the uk there's around 30 000 advisors at play.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: Um, on a whole there is when you look at different sources, but around that mark, um, so yeah, once we can open into that space, that's huge.
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: And then the world beyond that is yeah, it's the world's your wife's stuff, you could think international, just think international.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Since joining hoxton wealth right, my, my mind has been opened up to international and then it's also made me realize how closed mind minded the uk is what it's really interesting and like, how cynical at times it is, which is quite sad really.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: You know it's almost, it's almost holding itself back.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: So I think the culture there, work-wise, is so different to the UK.
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: So I've spent a bit of time there early in the year kind of toying with the idea of moving there, and everyone you speak to wants to help and wants to innovate and collaborate.
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: And what can I do to help you?
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: And oh, I know a person in this space like let's make an introduction like you don't get that in the uk and I love that.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: That's something I really, really enjoyed about about being there someone told me about the poppy syndrome.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: You ever heard of that, no?
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: or poppy theory.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: So you've got poppies.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: Poppy farmer would cut the poppies that were growing too big because it would stop the other ones from growing.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: So that's in the UK.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: You've got somebody pushing ahead.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: All someone wants to do is cut them down.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: Right, okay.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: And I've seen that it's constant and I see it and I've been there and I've lived it, until you step away and start working in a different environment, in a different business.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: It's a different thought process.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: It has its pluses and it has its negatives.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: In each environment, you know, nothing's perfect.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that any step of the way, and over here it's not right for some people, the same as over in the uk it's not quite for some people, but vice versa it is.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: It's just about there, is that and I've noticed that and when I, when I look at the UK and I look at an international business, it's very, very different.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: And it's the mindset.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: It's definitely around the mindset.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: It's a growth mindset but it's a highly competitive mindset.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: It is a propel yourself forward.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: If you think about Dubai, what 50 years odd it's been about right as a city, and it's insane what they've done within that period of time.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: But you don't.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: They didn't do that by sitting around doing nothing.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: They did it by getting a sand you know getting the, you know the spades in the sand and building.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: And then a city builds that way right, yeah, and a city builds that way quickly.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: And that's kind of the mentality.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Here you come, you're building.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: It's like the gold rush, you know you're coming out here to work.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very, it's very capitalist, you know, and that's the way it is.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: There isn't a system that gives you benefits if you are unable to work.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, you go home.
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: That's the way it is.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: So it is kind of fortune favors the brave mentality and it's.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: It's a.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: It's an interesting one, but it's also an environment where, if you come over and you aren't prepared for that and financially you're not prepared for that, as in you, you need to back yourself to come over here.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: It cost me like 30 odd grand just to move here, like, and get a flat and all of that.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Um.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: So if you're not setting yourself up financially before you come here, you're going to be stressed more than you are in the UK because it's more expensive here.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the cost of living really is high there, isn't it?
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Accommodation in itself, I think when we were looking was extortionate.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: I'm in a two bedroom duplex apartment overlooking the marina, but that's £3, pounds per month rent yeah which is a lot yeah, yeah that's a lot of money.
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all the food there is so great that all you want to do is eat out oh mate.
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: We were there a month and I didn't even scratch the surface of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to eat.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, it felt like a shame cooking at home just down the street that's great and everything's accessible, like everything comes to you.
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: So I'm getting a bit fat.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I've got a like.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: My mentality at the moment is like oh, sam, you need to UK.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: I always run to work and run here and run there and here because it's the heat and because it's so easy.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: My brain is like you don't need to do that anymore, sam, you can just chill out.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: And it's like oh, so I've started putting on a bit of weight.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: So I'm having to think more now about, like, right, get out for a run.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: I was out run this morning, went for a swim in the sea.
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: That's just nice anyway, do you know what I mean?
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: very good, well run down up to um jbr so we can see that's where I am.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly where I am really really good listen.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, becky, for your time today.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks for talking to me on the financial planner life podcast.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Maybe there should be a power planner life podcast.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I think power pool itself is going to go places.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you for checking in with me all the time.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Um, I'm always here to talk to you.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: I think you're fantastic innovator.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: We need people like you.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: We need more women like you within financial planning leaders, pushing forward, being innovators, smashing the mold, changing the stereotypical way that we work.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what I've been up to you know, and I love it.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: So I love talking and connecting with people like you.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: So, becky, thank you for sharing, and if anybody is listening to this and interested in powerpoint especially if you're an sjp advisor um, reach out directly to becky and you can do that in the comments section.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Find out about PowerPool by kicking the link as well, and do let me know if you enjoyed this episode and that you have reached out, because I'd love to hear what you think as well around that.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks, becky thanks.