There was strong reader interest this week in MDRT’s annual meeting where three Australian advisers shared the key to increasing the profitability of their businesses while serving fewer clients…
Three Australian advisers at the 2025 MDRT Annual Meeting have shared the key to unlocking their ability to significantly increase the profitability of their businesses while serving fewer clients.
While they cater to different client bases and deliver their own unique advice propositions, each of the advisers telling their story at MDRT in Miami appeared to share a striking commonality in how they arrived at the point of achieving this significant revenue and profit growth.
The advisers sharing their story were:
- Esther Althaus – Perspective Financial Services
- Ross Hultgren – Community Chapman Welsh
- Aaron Kane – EK Financial Group
The underlying factor common to each adviser in achieving this great outcome for their respective businesses seems to have been their decision to change their fee structure to reflect the value their advice actually provides, rather than charging fee levels they think their clients will pay.
Each adviser outlined the nature and context of their advice business journey, where all three were already operating viable practices, but falling short of where they wanted or needed to be.
In a session facilitated by former adviser, Baz Gardner, who also serves as a business consultant to each, the advisers accepted they were undercharging their clients relative to the value of the advice they were providing, which can sometimes be a difficult reality to admit. After taking the step of accepting they were undercharging, however, all three then had the courage to initiate difficult and sometimes confronting conversations with their clients about the level of the fees they were paying.
…it wasn’t uncommon for client feedback to suggest they felt they weren’t being charged enough for the services they were receiving
After some sleepless nights and second-guessing, the advisers reported very positive responses from almost all of their clients to the proposed fee increases, some of which were set at three or four times existing fee levels. They shared it wasn’t uncommon for client feedback to suggest they felt they weren’t being charged enough for the services they were receiving.
While expressed in slightly different ways, each of Althaus, Hultgren and Kane spoke to their experience of spending unproductive time in serving a proportion of their respective client groups who did not fit the profile of the type of client best suited to benefit from the advice each could provide.
The end result in each case ….saw a reduction in the number of clients under advice accompanied by an overall increase in revenue and profitability
The end result in each case immediately following recalibration to a client fee model based around value of advice saw a reduction in the number of clients under advice accompanied by an overall increase in revenue and profitability of around 40% and 80%.
Each business continues on its path, and other revenue and profit milestones are being achieved since the initial change in fee structure, which was also accompanied by a significantly improved work/life balance. But the future trajectory of the advice businesses has and will be shaped by the same fundamental change that each business owner has had the courage to implement.
