Introduction

Welcome to the Emerging Practice Manager Training Program. This course is designed to help improve your skills in the practice management of a financial advice business. In this first module, we’ll touch on the very core of why this role is so important in a business, and explore the bigger question of the purpose of financial advice in itself.   We’ll explore how your role can – and should – be a revenue enabling role, and not simply seen as a cost to the business. We’ll finish off with an introduction to leadership. A great practice manager is, after all, a leader in the business, and can have a huge influence over the quality of services that are delivered to clients, and the overall success and sustainability of the business.

The Engine Room of an advice practice

Financial Advice is a complicated profession. In order to provide advice to help clients make smart decisions and achieve their financial and lifestyle goals, there are a whole host of steps that must be taken, even for the most simple piece of advice. Every discussion and meeting must be adequately file noted, comparisons must be run and documented on the different options a client has, alternative strategies and products must be considered, quotes must be obtained, modelling of likely outcomes are to be conducted, even before the advice is documented. Once the Statement of Advice is in fact documented, documentation must be generated to acknowledge and implement the advice, appropriate consent must be obtained in a timely fashion, and then the implementation must be completed in a careful manner to ensure the client’s best interests are served. Records must be kept of all of the steps in creating advice, and every service obligation must be met within strict timelines, otherwise client fees must be refunded and the licensee may need to register a breach of obligations.  For this reason, we refer to the back office of an advice business as the engine room. It is simply impossible for an adviser to service their clients without a finely tuned, well-oiled engine room, enabling them to provide advice to their clients in a timely manner. In small firms with a small number of clients, an adviser may be able to use the services of outsourced paraplanning, and/or take care of their administration on their own, or with the help of good technology and outsourced admin support. The larger the firm, and the more clients they serve, the greater the need for support to deliver on the needs of the client.

Definition of a Practice Manager in financial advice:

Responsible for the effective running of the ‘back office’ in an advice firm, a great practice manager will ensure the team efficiently completes the administrative services to deliver financial advice to their clients and ensure compliance and service obligations are met. Responsibilities often vary depending on the size of a firm, but will usually include:

• Ensuring processes and workflows are implemented effectively 
• Managing culture, people and HR functions 
• Overseeing technology systems and updates  
• Managing WIP and allocation of tasks  
• Ensuring client service obligations are met within timeframes  
• Ensuring turnaround time and accuracy of advice docs AND implementation of advice are managed within service standards 
• Generally ensuring that the office runs smoothly and effectively 

Note that the Practice Manager is not always responsible to do all of client service and documentation activity in a business, but they are accountable to ensure the work is done, be that by other team members or effective technology. The buck stops with them, so to speak. Great practice managers take the organisational burden from the advisers and ensure the whole team works in harmony to deliver an exceptional client experience.  They build great cultures and are passionate about continually improving the business.   The specifics of the role within your organisation should be laid out in your role description. If you’re the first practice manager in the business and/or there is no role description for you, you can work with your Principal to write your own. This is really important to ensure you have clarity on your role, and can deliver to the expectations of your Principal. Taking this in hand might well be your first step at demonstrating that you’re able to take the pressure of running the office off your employer! You can use this template in the Evolve Alliance as a starting point and customise it to create your own job description. 

Why have a practice manager?

Most owners of financial advice businesses are financial advisers. They chose their profession because they‘re good at – and are passionate about – giving great financial advice to their clients to help improve their lives. That takes a lot of time and energy, and at some point, the time required to deliver those services to the clients of a firm will outweigh the available time that the owner has to run the business. It’s always a juggling exercise for the Principal, to manage their client work while overseeing the workflows and staff who create the documentation and implement the advice,  until the business is of a size that they can afford a Practice Manager.  Depending on the maturity of the business, some Principals will choose to reduce their client load to run the business as a CEO and others prefer to keep working with clients and employ someone to look after the logistics. Larger firms will typically have a CEO and/or a General Manager who is responsible for the strategic direction of the business and the overall leadership, with a Practice Manager who takes care of the operational aspects listed above.  The fact is, that there is so much administration and paperwork involved in delivering advice to clients, as well as managing staff and running a compliant operation, that a Practice Manager is an invaluable team member in a successful advice firm.