‘Time is a cost’: The key to advice practices increasing profit

On the back of an opinion piece published on ifa earlier this year – Why You Should See Your Clients Less, Not More – Plutosoft’s Vincent Holland said that many established firms spend most of their time servicing their existing client base and therefore if they can implement a “very structured, well implemented” review process, it will rapidly increase efficiency.

“The goal is twofold. It's both to decrease the time to service the client because in an industry like ours, time is a cost. It does translate into profit, if you can use it wisely,” Mr Holland said on the latest episode of the ifa Show podcast.

“It's about decreasing the time, but also making sure you're actually spending the time in the right areas. That you're actually spending the time on the areas that add the most amount of value.”

“When we actually look at it, it's quite often the reverse. So, it's counterintuitive.”

Mr Holland said that many firms are spending more time on manual compliance aspects of the process, not on the parts that add most value for clients.

“… which is where your modelling comes in, which is showing clients different scenarios, different trade-offs, different options, really empowering the client to make sensible decisions,” he explained.

“That actually often comprises the least amount of time when it should be the complete opposite.”

On the same episode, Mr Holland said the COVID-19 pandemic is “probably the biggest event in recent history” and suggested that the changes throughout the pandemic, such as moving to an all-digital capacity and technology adoption, has “shifted the clients”.

Listen to the full podcast with Mr Holland here.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.