Is niching the way forward for advice?

Speaking on an episode of the ifa Show, financial adviser Nathan Fradley explained how niching in financial advice can have a positive impact on the client experience.

Having recently taken on a new approach to advice under his self-named brand, Nathan Fradley Advice, he explained how greater specialisation can improve the client experience as the adviser is able to better prepare for issues that may arise due to their expertise in the area.

“When you’re sitting in front of someone and you can say to them: ‘I know your situation because I’ve seen it before and I’ve helped people in the exact situation that you’re in and I know what you’re going through and here’s some other things that are going to happen as part of this process, here’s some things you’re going to experience,’” Fradley said.

“You’d be able to pre-empt that and when they happen, that builds greater confidence. That’s really, really powerful and all three areas that I work in, that’s very easy to demonstrate. But I think in all areas of advice, it’s easy to demonstrate.”

He added that niching, for him, was done by focusing on a particular kind of client rather than a life event.

“I think when you’re thinking of niching, it’s more that I niche with a kind of person and these are the things that they go through … it’s then not about a life event as a reason, it’s about them coming to the realisation that you will understand their situation and you can improve,” Fradley said.

“If everyone looks at their favourite 10 clients they like working with, I bet you there’s some similarities across them. In fact, you could probably have a barbecue with all of them in the same place and they’d all get along.”

Addressing the question of whether specialisation is possible in the broader sense of the industry, he said it will “largely depend on the identity of the practice”.

“I think there’s practices out there that will do, as a value proposition for their clients, one thing, and everyone will do the same thing,” Fradley said.

“You’ll be trained to deliver advice in that way because you’re trying to deliver the same kind of advice at scale, which I think is great if you’re really good at delivering that specific thing for the kind of people that need it.

“Not if you’re just delivering the same thing for everyone who walks in the door.”

He added how important it is to provide consistency across a practice for clients while also allowing the adviser’s individual style and personality to shine through.

“That’s probably where I see the niche difference coming in. Not everyone is the same person. Advisers aren’t clones of each other. Everyone has their own style, their own approach,” Fradley said.

“I think really good practices will enable a level of scalability within their business to create consistency in a client experience, which is really important.

“It allows advisers to come and go, to move up and down to do what they need to do and clients always get the same experience, but the personality of that individual adviser can come through.”