Unwind and recharge this Christmas season

As the year draws to a close, advice practices are deciding when they are going to shut up shop and for how long.

Speaking on behalf of her own team, Sue Viskovic, managing director of Elixir Consulting, underscored the importance of making the most out of the business shutdown period.

“As a family, you know, it’s critical for all of us that we really do step away from the business and take time,” Ms Viskovic said.

“It’s so important, I think, to just let the computer shut down, reboot, and just spend time with family. Don’t think about work, don’t think about all of the other challenges that absorb so much of your brainpower and enjoy the time.

“It’s not about the presents”, she noted, but rather “it’s about being present”.

According to Ms Viskovic, many advisers tend to work right up to Christmas before taking a good few weeks off.

“For a lot of them, they either don’t come back at all until after Australia Day, or they might come back into the office, but they don’t do a lot of client work,” she explained.

From the perspective of a consultant that creates coaching services targeting advisers, this can be a prime time for advisers to get back into the groove of strategic planning, with the added benefit of a well-deserved break.

“So that actually means one of two things for us. It’s either that we don’t often have a January meeting with them because it might mean that they’re closed and we catch up early Feb.,” Ms Viskovic noted.

“Or there’s a whole consort of our clients, too, that this is when we do their strategic planning because they don’t have their client work and it’s quite a good time. They’ve had a break, they’ve had a good shutdown and reboot of the brain.

“Their clients aren’t back in yet so they can actually start doing some really good strategic thinking on working on the business rather than in the business. So it tends to be either or.”

Last month, VBP acquired specialist financial planning, consulting and coaching firm Elixir Consulting, with Ms Viskovic taking on the role of VBP general manager, consulting.

She joined ifa shortly after to discuss her recent business merger, the evolving landscape of financial advice, and the role of technology in shaping the industry’s future.