How Advisory Services Operate
The advisory services sector covers everything from financial planning to legal expertise. However, these different advisory services typically operate separately from one another, with collaboration only happening when a client requires a referral. Even then, it’s common practice that the client will be passed from one adviser to another, without much communication between the two. One example of this would be if a client was interested in estate planning. They might start with a financial adviser who they have known for years who looks after tax or trust planning, while then referring the client to a solicitor to prepare a will. It could also happen the other way, starting with a solicitor who then needs to involve a financial adviser. This is just one area of law and financial advice.
Yet, it’s this method of separated working that raises challenges for both financial advisers and their clients.
The Impact on Financial Advisers
Financial advisers typically work extremely hard to build relationships with their clients and ensure the services they are providing are meeting all of their needs. Yet, when financial advisers act as middlemen between their clients and other advisory professionals, they often lose control over the relationship that they’ve worked so hard to build. That’s because, once a client is referred to a separate advisory service, it’s all too common for financial advisers to have no further input into the services and support that their clients receive, risking their client’s satisfaction and their own reputation. You would have thought that financial advisers would at the very least receive a referral fee from the other advisory professionals, however this is a rare occurrence and usually operates as a one-way street.
To top all of this off, once a client is referred to a separate advisory business, there’s no guarantee that the client will be referred back. For financial advisers, all they can do is keep their fingers crossed that their client won’t be referred to a different financial adviser.
The Impact on Clients
Whilst stressful enough for financial advisers, think how challenging this must be for clients.
Whether they want to organise a trust or prepare an employment contract, clients will often have to approach both financial and legal advisers. In doing so, clients are often referred from one to another, leading them to have contact with a number of professionals and businesses that operate in completely different ways, making the advisory services sector an extremely confusing environment for clients. Not only is this made more challenging by the limited communication between advisers, but it can also be difficult for clients to know who they should contact about certain issues.
With both the advisers and clients facing issues with this method of operating, you would have thought there would be a solution by now that would benefit both parties.
The Solution
Using the Bamboo Platform, financial advisers can bridge the gap and provide their clients with a single point of contact for all of their advisory needs.
The Bamboo Platform is a law firm operating system, enabling financial advisers to effectively create their own law brand and expand their advisory services. However, that isn’t to say you need to be an expert on legal matters to join Bamboo as a financial adviser and generate additional revenue. Once set up, you can either access existing lawyers on the Bamboo Platform or hire lawyers to deliver through your brand. This way, you can provide your clients with financial advice and offer them legal services under your own brand name. No longer the middleman, the Bamboo Platform enables financial advisers to create a one stop shop of advisory services for their clients. It’s a win-win all round.
So, if you’re a financial adviser searching for a way to expand and improve the advisory services you deliver to clients, feel free to get in touch to find out more about the Bamboo Platform.
