Value beyond fees

If AI helps every good advice firm deliver better work, how do any of us stand out?

I've been thinking about that since the beginning of this year, as AI has started carrying out more of the work around advice. There is real scope to make that work quicker and more consistent.

That's good for our industry. It also makes me think harder about what someone values in the relationship with their adviser.

The technical work will always matter. People need sound advice and confidence that it will be carried through properly. But that doesn't fully explain why someone chooses a firm, feels comfortable with its people and wants to stay.

I wrote previously about Authentic Intelligence and the importance of human judgement alongside better technology. This is the part I've been trying to put into practice - how well we know the people we serve, and what that knowledge allows us to do for them.

Sitting with others doing it well

I saw a good example while working at Macquarie. Its Virtual Adviser Network brought successful advisers and practice owners together to learn from each other and get help growing their businesses.

What stayed with me was that people who already ran good firms still had plenty to gain from sitting with others doing it well.

That has influenced what we're building at PGW Financial Services. We took on PGW five years ago, and today it has a national presence with more than 80 advisers. Across the wider profession, adviser numbers almost halved between 2019 and March this year.

There is plenty behind PGW's growth. One part we keep investing in is bringing advisers together to discuss their practices and learn from people facing similar decisions.

Alongside our work as a licensee, I want advisers to have people they can turn to about the businesses they're trying to build. Sometimes another adviser will have the experience that helps.

Beyond the Boardroom

At Solomons, we've been applying the same thinking to our private client relationships.

This year, we began developing Beyond the Boardroom, our series of private conversations and experiences bringing clients together with business leaders, market thinkers and each other. Many are founders and business owners, with decisions to make well beyond their investment portfolios.

At a recent Mercedes-Benz AMG driving experience, we planned the pairings in each car around our clients' industries, business interests and who might benefit from getting to know each other.

Each pair would have roughly 30 minutes to an hour together. We wanted to give a conversation enough time to develop: what they were working on, where their interests overlapped and whether there might be a way to help each other.

Plenty of firms host good events. For me, the work is in thinking carefully about who should meet, and giving them time to get to know each other.

I often talk about good-hearted, like-minded people. The good-hearted part matters most to me. You want someone to feel comfortable in the company they're in, and free to enjoy a conversation without there needing to be a commercial outcome.

Two clients who met through Beyond the Boardroom are now exploring a business opportunity potentially worth millions of dollars. It's still early, and whatever comes from it will be theirs to build. We helped create the opportunity for them to meet.

When an introduction has that kind of potential for someone's business, I think it deserves a place in how we talk about the value of advice.

The people in the room

We recently hosted a private, in-person conversation in Sydney with Cathie Wood of ARK Investment Management LLC about AI and disruptive technology as part of the series.

For the business owners in the room, those subjects have implications for their own industries and the decisions ahead. With these conversations, I want clients to have room to ask questions relevant to their businesses and share what they're seeing too.

The people in the room matter as much as the setting. Being able to explain your circumstances and hear how someone else has approached a similar problem can give you a different way of thinking about your own.

Someone may have experience you haven't had, or practical knowledge you wouldn't ordinarily have access to. In a private, comfortable room with good-hearted people, there is space to ask more openly, exchange ideas and learn from each other.

What we remember

Small things, but personal things. They show whether we paid attention to what someone shared with us.

That takes judgement too. Some people welcome regular contact. Others want room to think. Knowing someone well should help us understand what would be useful to them, including when to give them that space.

I want that understanding to carry through the firm, so personal care doesn't depend on one person remembering every detail.

Over the past 12 months, we've been developing and trialling technology and processes in-house to support those personal touchpoints and help advisers stay engaged with their clients.

AI is part of that work. I want it to help us keep track of what needs attention and reduce the administration that takes time away from a proper conversation. We're still working through how to do that well.

The adviser still needs to understand the person and decide how to approach them. A reminder can be useful. What you say when you pick up the phone depends on the relationship you've built.

The thought behind it all

For me, value beyond fees is in the thought behind it all: who we introduce, what we remember, when we follow up and whether we understand what someone is trying to achieve.

Our investment in technology is there to take more of the administration off our advisers' desks and give them more time with their clients. Time to understand the business, the family and the decisions that matter to them.

I want someone to be able to pick up the phone knowing we have time for them, we understand their circumstances and we'll follow through on what we've said we'll do.