{"id":71983,"date":"2024-06-18T12:39:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T02:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=71983"},"modified":"2024-06-25T10:31:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T00:31:53","slug":"top-performing-advice-businesses-have-six-traits-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2024\/06\/18\/top-performing-advice-businesses-have-six-traits-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"Top-Performing Advice Businesses Have Six Traits in Common"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Advice businesses that are enjoying more success, as defined by their Earnings before Interest and Tax margins and owner satisfaction, exhibit six critical characteristics, according to a new report by VBP-backed <a href=\"https:\/\/elixirconsulting.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elixir Consulting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/vbp.ac-page.com\/advice-operations-research-report-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2024 Advice Operations Research Report<\/a>, sponsored by Colonial First State, found top-performing businesses have six things in common:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A healthy culture<\/li>\n<li>Dedicated Practice Manager<\/li>\n<li>Documented processes<\/li>\n<li>They outsource tasks<\/li>\n<li>Use managed discretionary accounts<\/li>\n<li>Engage an external business coach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A statement from Elixir says the report, which is based on a survey of 171 advice businesses, also found a direct correlation between pay and performance, with businesses that reward all employees by paying bonuses and competitive salaries recording an average EBIT margin of 27%.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, the average advice business has an EBIT margin of 23% after normalising Principal salaries to $150k + super.<\/p>\n<p>They also recorded higher employee satisfaction and culture scores.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_71986\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71986\" style=\"width: 152px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/Lana_Clark_Elixir_Consulting1-e1718671020197.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-71986\" src=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/Lana_Clark_Elixir_Consulting1-e1718671020197-245x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"152\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/Lana_Clark_Elixir_Consulting1-e1718671020197-245x300.png 245w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/Lana_Clark_Elixir_Consulting1-e1718671020197-696x852.png 696w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/Lana_Clark_Elixir_Consulting1-e1718671020197-343x420.png 343w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/Lana_Clark_Elixir_Consulting1-e1718671020197.png 766w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 152px) 100vw, 152px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lana Clark &#8230;another important lever is optimising operations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The report\u2019s author <strong>Lana Clark<\/strong>, Founder of GSD Lab and Senior Consultant at Elixir, says the research highlights the positive impact optimising operations can have on profitability, employee satisfaction and culture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is incredibly valuable having hard data on what\u2019s happening inside advice businesses to give those struggling to create, implement and manage essential operational aspects a compass for achieving back-office excellence,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many discussions about business growth and profitability are focused on recruitment, scale and M&amp;A, but another important lever is optimising operations. Advisers can enhance client service, build a strong culture and mitigate risk by driving operational improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elixir Consulting surveyed 171 advice businesses across Australia, representing 561 financial advisers, 43 risk specialists, 72 accountants and 25 mortgage brokers, as part of its research.<\/p>\n<p>Over 50% of participants belonged to a medium-to-large licensee, 11% to a boutique licensee and 37% were self-licensed. A quarter were based in a capital city, 40% in metropolitan areas and 33% in regional areas.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;68% of respondents did not have effective systems for managing workflow&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Sue Viskovic<\/strong>, Founder of Elixir and Head of Consulting at VBP, says the report reinforces the importance of the right technology for streamlining back-office operations, citing that 68% of respondents did not have effective systems for managing workflow.<\/p>\n<p>One third described their systems and processes as \u201cout of date, not documented and not consistently followed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She says that her firm knows that &#8220;&#8230;fully tested and thoroughly documented processes are a critical step, if not an absolute must, to successfully streamlining and automating business operations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe trend towards greater technology adoption is accelerating, which is encouraging to see, but this also increases the importance of cyber security, particularly as systems become more connected and integrated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vbp.ac-page.com\/advice-operations-research-report-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> for a copy of the report.<\/p>\n<p><em>This report stems from Elixir&#8217;s practice management research study, conducted in late 2023, which also formed the basis for the company&#8217;s presentations at the <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfocus.com.au\/24-regsitrations\/\">Riskinfocus 24<\/a> events in March where it was revealed that advisers delivering insurance-only advice charge their clients an average advice fee of $1,689 in addition to any commission income they receive (see: <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2024\/03\/26\/1689-risky-advice-fee\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$1,689 &#8216;Risky&#8217; Advice Fee<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_71984\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-71984\" style=\"width: 832px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/exlir-report-cover.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-71984\" src=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/exlir-report-cover.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"832\" height=\"597\" srcset=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/exlir-report-cover.jpg 832w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/exlir-report-cover-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/exlir-report-cover-768x551.jpg 768w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/exlir-report-cover-696x499.jpg 696w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2024\/06\/exlir-report-cover-585x420.jpg 585w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-71984\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy of Elixir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advice businesses that are enjoying more success, as defined by their Earnings before Interest and Tax margins and owner satisfaction, exhibit six critical characteristics, according to a new report by VBP-backed Elixir Consulting. The inaugural 2024 Advice Operations Research Report, sponsored by Colonial First State, found top-performing businesses have six things in common: A healthy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":71994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4474],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general","category-practice-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}