#18 Didintle Mokonoto – Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

clients, advisor, people, business, work, industry, technology, engaging, person, fintech, financial planner, didi, building, cfp designation, thinking, data, financial planning, find, exploring, investment

SPEAKERS

Didintle Mokonoto, Louis van der Merwe

Louis van der Merwe 

Welcome to another episode of financial planners, South Africa. Today I have Didi Mokonoto. With me, she’s a certified financial planner, a winner of the FBI diversity and inclusion award for 2020. has made waves in the industry with someone that speaks her mind. She’s currently a strategic enablement manager at astute and dB. It’s lovely to have you here today. And thank you so much for such a warm welcome. It’s a pleasure and honor to be here with you.

Didintle Mokonoto 

Thanks for the invite.

Louis van der Merwe 

Didi. When we had our intro call before, there’s so many valuable things that came up in our discussion. But I’d like you to give us a little bit of a background or home you got into financial planning, what were those first steps that you took?

Didintle Mokonoto 

Yeah, looks I’ve been in the industry for, I think I could say about 10 years now. So we are just like Time went by so fast. But straight out of university, I went into become accounting at the University of Johannesburg. And very fast do we realize that accounting is really not my thing, auditing is not my thing. It’s it’s just so monotonous. And I wasn’t excited by it. So I decided to then change to become finance, which then allowed me to, you know, dip into investments, it allowed, it exposed me to financial planning, it exposed me to tax planning. And that just opened up the world of possibilities to me, so that excited me. And I think back in the day when when we when we did honors and financial planning, you could also then simultaneously write your board exam.

Louis van der Merwe 

So your CFP exam was combined then.

Didintle Mokonoto 

So it wasn’t a separate exam, which is lucky for me. So I did all of that before I even started working, I had qualified and I had gotten the board exam done and dusted and I just needed to get my work experience, I could get the actual designation. So so that’s where my journey started. And then I started working at Alexander Forbes as a junior financial planner. So we would give advice over the phone, I wouldn’t physically see clients, I wouldn’t physically say to them, but it was more like a call center environment. We dealt with the smaller clients, the clients that had like minimum debit orders, or like 50,000 rands that they wanted to invest. And that’s where my my journey started in this industry. Wow. So you took the professional education part really seriously and said, Okay, I need to get my Certified Financial Planner designation before I start giving advice. And like you said, back in the day I was admitted, then I think it was a little bit easier because I struggled to get over that hoop. And you went into this role at Alexander for like, tell me about those early days, like how did you find the culture within in the business at that point, I loved it. I mean, it was such a solid foundation for my career, because I think it’s hard to enter the industry, the financial planning industry, as a young person who doesn’t have connections, he doesn’t have a network of wealthy people, you know. So starting off Alexander Forbes, they gave us leads, we had a salary. So I knew at the end of the month, I would get you know, something It wasn’t me, depending on commission and sales. And that really taught me the importance of building a relationship with a client as opposed to just selling so that I can have, you know, food at the end of the month, they really, really laid a solid foundation for me. So I’m forever grateful to Alexander Forbes for for what they did.

Louis van der Merwe 

Brilliant. I think that’s such a great base to start from that you don’t have this incentive to necessarily sell products it’s delivering good advice. In obviously, your career ended at Alexander Forbes after about three years. And what was that point that made you decide to look for something else?

Didintle Mokonoto 

Well, when I left Forbes, I actually went to a smaller brokerage. So I still was interested in being a financial adviser, but I was still exploring and seeing what’s out there. So I went to a smaller brokerage, so that I could get exposed to more at Forbes I focused a lot on retirement planning. And just a little bit of investment planning, but I really wanted to now do wealth management and look at it holistically and see how you can help a client from when they when you meet them to all the way to retirement. And in that process, it just dawned on me that this is such a big responsibility that I’m carrying, I really have to be with this client until the day that they pass away which is something that I didn’t see myself doing and I realized the magnitude of that responsibility. So I started exploring, you know, different avenues for me to start using my CFP designation within the industry,

Louis van der Merwe 

I think that’s such a valuable point to consider. The idea is that you’re saying this relationship with your financial planner is relationship for life almost. And, yes, we sometimes use it as marketing to say, you know, where you were your partners for life, but actually, are you taking this seriously enough? And are you ready for that commitment? Because it’s, it’s like a marriage, now you have two people that have to be committed to this, this relationship? What were the things that scared you of that of the of these, like, really long relationships with your clients?

Didintle Mokonoto 

I mean, I would see my friends were getting promotions, and they were climbing up the corporate ladder. And I mean, when you’re an advisor, you are an advisor, that’s your job, you know, you Yes, you might start as a junior advisor, and then you, you know, you get more experienced, and then you become a senior advisor, you know, you get, you know, wealthier clients a bigger portfolio. But I sort of thought that I’d be doing the same thing over and over again. And I didn’t think that my skill set was well positioned in that role, I thought that I’m very strategic. I’m an innovator, I’m someone who thinks out of the box. So I wouldn’t, like my god given talents wouldn’t have been maximized as an advisor. And they will, I felt like there was another place for me to, to fully use my skills, you know, but still using my designation, so I still would add value to the client, and to other advisors, just not as me being the person that’s giving that advice. And I think that’s how I then started exploring the asset management side of financial services. And getting into Ellen gray, you know, I wanted to see what that side of the world looked like,

Louis van der Merwe 

Yeah, tell us a little bit, you know, what was your experience? And what did that side of the world look like? So

Didintle Mokonoto 

it’s a very, I think, it’s it’s such a volatile environment in the sense that you said, with clients, and my clients were financial advisors at the time, when I moved into asset management. He said, with your clients, and you, you’re giving them investment updates, you’re giving them updates in terms of the performance of your funds, and there’s so much emotion attached to money, there’s so much emotion attached to an advisors, clients money, and they want to make sure that they’re making the right decision, if they choose to use this particular balanced fund, they want to know that the person that’s managing it is doing the right thing, they ethical, and they doing as much research as they possibly can to make sure that the clients reach retirement financially sound. So it’s also a big responsibility that we were carrying. On the asset management side, it was just a more distant relationship with the clients.

Louis van der Merwe 

So I see this kind of theme of, you know, emotions being pegging backing on on money. And what it sounds like is that it can get quite heated debates, like how did you how did you juggle the interests of working for an asset manager, but also, you know, wanting to serve that that end client?

Didintle Mokonoto 

I think they It was quite an easy one, because the asset manager that I chose to work for was one that I trust, I really, I think they very ethical, I think, you know, I trust the investment team, the values of the company, and you see it from from the first time you walk into the building, from the receptionist, to whoever you meeting with, it’s actually the culture. It just goes through every single individual that you interact with. So it’s very easy to sell an asset manager that you know, is doing the right thing. Yes, there are ups and downs and the performance markets go up and down, but you trust that the people behind the company brand are doing the right things and made made it easier for me to then sell them.

Louis van der Merwe 

So did you You talk a lot about kind of delivering advice at scale and not necessarily directly with the client but through your partnerships with financial planners. What happened after you left Alan gray

Didintle Mokonoto 

hmm so that’s a very interesting one because while I was that Alan gray, my mind was still exploring right Louis so I was still trying to use this innovative mind and I’m, I’m now in this investment world, which is a very like, you know, suit and tie type of environments. And you know, when you present you have to kind of sit upright and speak in a particular way. So my mind started exploring different areas within financial services and I was researching a lot, and I started reading up a lot on financial technology, and it kept popping up it kept popping up, and things like advice take open fire. Finance, you know, blockchain, all of these things started creeping in. And I decided to just invest in myself and do a short course on financial technology. It was an online course with Saeed, which is the business school for Oxford. And that was the best decision I made. Because that opened up my eyes, I got to interact with people from across the world, that were building different fintechs that were working for global companies, and developing different products, you know, and it showed me that there’s so much that I can still do with my CFP designation, it’s just I’d be taking a different route. The only thing is, I hadn’t met anyone like me. So I had not made someone who has the CFP designation that had explored this FinTech world, you know, so it, I was literally alone. So what I decided to do is, obviously, I engaged within the company that I was working for, to see if they were opportunities aligned with what I wanted to do. And then I started engaging with fintechs, all over South Africa. And I made a decision to kind of take two steps back so to to leave Alan gray, without a job and dedicate that time to finding the right opportunity that was aligned with what was in my heart and what, what my passion was like that fire that was you know, igniting and really wanted to like explode, I needed to release it, but I couldn’t do it in that environment. So I took some time off. And unfortunately, that was the same time when we had offers locked down. So it was when COVID was starting. And I mean, who would have known that the world can stop. I mean, we joke about this all the time, but who actually would have known that the world could stop. So at that time, yeah, I was engaging still with different fintechs. And maybe different payment systems advice takes like all across the FinTech spectrum. And that’s how I then ended up engaging with students, which is a company I never ever thought I would work for ever, ever. I didn’t even cross my mind. And from my very first interview, I realized that there’s so much more to this company, and I need to actually get in there and see the work that they’re doing and explore a little bit more. So yeah, that’s how I ended up with edit sheets,

Louis van der Merwe 

or DD, what a time to find your values and reignite that passion. And as someone that also enjoys technology and loves using it, I can only imagine how it must be sifting through these different areas. Tell us a little bit more about this kind of FinTech program that you that you did, like how was it engaging with eople? I’m assuming there was not a lot of people from South Africa at that time. It also, you know, what can we learn from the global perspective on how businesses see FinTech?

Didintle Mokonoto 

You know, they went a lot of South Africans, there were a few people from Africa, which is also quite exciting, because you see the development that’s happening in our continent. And it’s exciting, right? Because it shows you that we are amazing people who are thinking out the box. And you know, sometimes you just need to give certain people opportunities, and you just see how they just run with things and do amazing things. But so I engaged with different types of people having engaged with bank managers, people that focus on investment banking, people that are focusing on wealth management. And there was a common common, I could say topic that kept coming up. And that was data. That’s one thing that I picked up the importance of data, the importance of having clean data, and how you can use it with alongside technology to kind of improve efficiencies, improve how you’re servicing clients, improve how you’re marketing to your clients, are you marketing the right things to your clients, or you just calling everyone on a telephone book and trying to sell insurance to them, you know, so it was it was very eye opening to one learn about the different technologies behind FinTech and also just to understand how they fit into financial services, so date investing, saving, you know, pension funds, so that was very, very exciting.

Louis van der Merwe 

So with that strategic mind that gave you a sense of where all these pieces fit in and that allow you to hone into one piece and said, Okay, I want to focus on

Didintle Mokonoto 

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I must say though, when when I left Alan gray, I didn’t know which part of what type of intake. I wanted to work for. Because Because I was still very new to this, and I didn’t have a mentor, I didn’t, I didn’t really have someone that I could just bounce things off. So I was literally winging it. I was winging everything. And I was doing a lot of research and I was just, you know, watching a lot of YouTube videos, I could say that I kind of put myself through my own little University, my own little FinTech University over and above the course that I did. So when I ended up at at a shoots, I had an option between like a point of sale type of FinTech or like a street, which is a data exchange company that is in the same type of financial planning MSA. So So then I decided to go with a street because it really, really did speak to my qualifications and experience that I have in the industry.

Louis van der Merwe 

So when we hear a student, we typically think, oh, that’s the place that you go to get policy information for clients, but from our discussion is so much more maybe can just give us a brief background? And like, what are the different services that Steve offers? And where do you fit in?

Didintle Mokonoto 

Yeah, so I mean, it’s so funny when when I also applied to a shoot, I thought, literally, it was just the policy, data part of the business, but it’s such a dynamic company. So we’ve got those intermediary services that that most financial advisors know about. We’ve got risk services. So we we are integrated with different insurance companies, and we’re actively trying to mitigate fraud, we’re trying to reduce fraud, insurance, cable fraud, you know, so there’s different systems that we’ve put in place to make sure that if Ed has been naughty, in the in the industry, in the insurance industry, all the insurance companies should be aware that DD is someone that you should probably put a red flag for red flag up for, you know, so it’s just little, little nudges that that we give the insurance companies to, you know, research a bit more the data analytics teams can understand the clients a little bit more understand the client’s behavior a little bit more, there’s just so much to the work that we’re doing. And we’re seeing sort of like an uptake in financial advisors, finding enough financial advisors who are building their own fintechs that talk to not only the CRM capability, but also other jobs that financial advisors need to do. So some of the fintechs specialize in investment planning, you know, some of the FinTech specialize in estate planning. But at the end of the day, as st is in the center of these technologies that are being built to make advisors life simpler, and easier, and insurance companies lives easier.

Louis van der Merwe 

That’s so interesting, because we’ve seen a couple of cases where it makes complete sense for a financial planning practice to build their own proprietary software, as opposed to, you know, buying something off the shelf, or customizing one of the bigger learning pieces out there. What is your take on financial planners building their own software? And you know, at what point does it make sense for company to consider that,

Didintle Mokonoto 

I would say if it’s your passion, so if this is something that you really you’re passionate about, then do it, because you might if you’re going to do it out of frustration, because you’re not finding what you’re looking for. You might end up wasting money resources, do the research, do the homework, you obviously understand what you’re looking for, you’ve been doing this for years. So if if there’s a fire inside of you that saying do this, this is part of your purpose, I’m all about purpose, if if this is part of your purpose, do it. If it’s not part of your purpose, then be the person that is engaging with the different software providers that are they and and tell them what you want, tell them you know, use your voice, but I don’t think that everyone should be building their own system, I think it’s gonna take a lot of money and you don’t want to start at a give it halfway. You’d have to think about things like distribution strategies, you need funding you you need to actually build the system. So you need a developer you need an engineer, there’s so many different things that you need to think about. And not to forget that you actually have a book of clients that you have to manage and take care of while you’re building this FinTech so you, I would say do it. If it’s really something that in your heart of hearts, you think you will add value and you should actually be doing this.

Louis van der Merwe 

I love that it comes back to that fire in what you’re passionate about. And what you told us is that with the beginning of lockdown, there was the same time when you had when you found yourself in between jobs in between opportunities. You took to find your passion. Instead what was the process that you took to find your passion? I just

Didintle Mokonoto 

research and I read a lot. I just I So, okay, so my starting point was when I study, do I even enjoy what I studied? Okay, that was a yes. Okay, at least I enjoyed that I enjoyed numbers, I enjoyed dealing with people. Okay, then I just started researching financial services, what’s happening, you know, new trends. And then, like I said, FinTech kept coming up, it kept coming up, or maybe I was gravitating towards it, I don’t know. But then I started researching a lot about that. And it just made me excited. As I was reading on it, I got excited, and I realized I actually have to explore this a bit more. But I always say with the thing with, when you’re trying to find your purpose, you need to it needs to be aligned with helping people. So your purpose, I think people tend to overthink purpose. It’s not, you know, building a Tesla, or, or starting an Uber, that’s, that’s, that’s not your purpose. Your purpose is you want to help people. Okay, so I want to help people, what is my core skill sets? Okay, financial services. Alright, cool. So within financial services, how can I help people and you start thinking around that, I’ll always say that I wasn’t created to be served, I was created to serve. So that’s, that’s like the core of everything that I do. And when you start thinking that way, you see your perspective change changes, and you start seeing opportunities that you probably wouldn’t have seen if you were focused on things like I want to make money, or I want to build this big corporation. Yeah.

Louis van der Merwe 

Love that serving mindset. And actually, when in the business of helping people like you say, Yeah, I have no clients, but at the same time, you know, you can build a sustainable business and also employ people and through that, help them Didi in your kind of role as the cheapest and have the FBI practice management committee. What do you come across in businesses that you think people are getting stuck in, like, what are the things that you see that is taking up all of their time, and that you think there’s actually maybe a solution out there that they must

Didintle Mokonoto 

show for from a lot of engagements that I’ve had with advisors, the one thing that takes up a lot of time is compliance, there’s a lot of red tape, it takes up time, and it takes time that advisors should be using sit in front of clients, they’re using it to make sure that all the tick boxes are ticked. So you know, things like KYC, you seeing a lot of technologies that are coming up that are integrated with the Department of Home Affairs, for example, that makes your KYC process a little bit smoother and more efficient. And you can do things like take selfies, and it kind of links your ID to your selfie, you know, things like that, I think compliance is a big, big time consumer in a practice. Um, the other thing is admin, you know, so so there’s this whole debate about, you know, having an administrator, like a physical person who is doing your admin. And, and my, my, my thing with administrators is, I think we, we, as an industry need to look at administrators, as people that we can develop. Anyone that is dealing with paperwork, anyone that is capturing anyone that is doing something that a robot or computer can do, we need to help those people figure out what they want to do, what their purpose is, and let’s help develop them, you might find that once we start developing them, within your business, that person would add so much value in a way that you probably wouldn’t have done yourself, you know, so that’s, that’s another practice management area that we’re seeing. Some advisors are proactively putting in work into developing the assistance, not to be data catchers, but to be specialists in a specific area or something like that, you know, so those are, you know, some of the top ones that I’m thinking of, we’re also seeing just things like, you know, behavioral, behavioral coaching, so just coaching your clients and having the ability to sit with your clients and one lesson and actually listen to your client. The ability to coach your client and not tell your client that they need to go into this particular funnel, they need to, you know, use an array instead of a tax free investment, but the ability to understand what your client really wants. Like what is important to add, you know, that she actually wants to get married, that she want children? Why are you Why are you forcing her to, you know, buy a house right now just because she can afford it, you know, so that that that fine line of 10 between selling and coaching your clients, we also seeing some of that creep up, or when we

Louis van der Merwe 

delve a little bit more into this role that you talked about in terms of expanding the capabilities of your staff and actually planning for a future role and not just saying, we’re going to automate away your your current occupation and your current role, like, what are the practical steps that someone can take to build a staff development plan? would you would you start you mentioned passion, but like, what do you practically?

Didintle Mokonoto 

Yeah, I think and I mean, this is for any industry, anyone that is managing a person, I think the most important thing is for you to remember that you are working with a person who has feelings, he has goals, he has aspirations, I think that’s the first place to start. And then, you know, give them time to give them your time rather. So give them your time, have time to sit with them, whether it’s once a month, once a quarter, but like to catch up and find out where they at in their minds, right? Once you’ve once you’ve gotten to that point, you can then start looking at your practice your business and see where is your business going, and where is this person going with their goals, you know, and try find a middle ground to see how you could possibly transition that person from where they are right now into a more specialized role or even if it’s a generic role, but a generic role that would allow them to use their skill sets and and sort of excel in what they doing in a way that cannot be replaced by technology.

Louis van der Merwe 

A piece that you’re talking about almost sounds to me as if the business needs to grow at a certain rate to allow a career path for that employee, like, are you seeing our businesses growing fast enough to create career paths for for the staff,

Didintle Mokonoto 

it depends on the business and it depends on the owner of the business. So if you look at a typical financial planning practice, it’s not the type of business if it’s maybe, you know, there’s one advisor, one assistant, I wouldn’t expect it to all of a sudden have 10 employees or 15 employees and in five years that’s not really the plan of the advisor, the advisor is really trying to maybe grow the book and grow the client experience. So you don’t necessarily have to grow the number of employees or the size of the business but you’re growing the way that you’re engaging with your clients. And when you do that you need more resources to engage in a different way with your clients. So your assistant could be an enabler for you to do certain things that you weren’t you were not able to do in the past you know so you only one person if you are the advisor you one person you can only sit with one person at a time. So now you’ve you’ve developed your your assistant to be able to handle certain engagements with your clients in a way where your clients would still feel the same level of experience client experience, the journey wouldn’t drop, they wouldn’t get frustrated because this particular person doesn’t know what x y Zed is. So I guess what I’m trying to say is take your assistant along the journey so if your plans are growing if your the way that you see your your practice engaging with clients is growing and the way you you’ll be receiving your clients bring your assistant along that journey. Don’t just develop yourself and develop your systems and your technology but develop the actual people in the business as well.

Louis van der Merwe 

Yeah, Didi this concept of of brand consistency. I can see how that resonates with someone that worked at Alan gray with a brand consistency is so high. Yeah. Why? Right? Bringing your, your assistant along on this journey so that for the client, it feels like the experience is growing not necessarily just the growth of the business. Yeah, definitely.

Didintle Mokonoto 

I mean, there’s nothing more frustrating then, for example, calling a call center I don’t know maybe it’s a you have one punch, something’s broken and you need it fixed and you talk to one person and that person doesn’t know anything that’s going on and then you talk to another person and they have all the answers but you’ve only reached that person after two hours of trying. You know, that is the worst frustrating client experience ever. So so if we can be consistent from the first point of contact right to the end, you will guarantee many retaining your clients and retaining them?

Louis van der Merwe 

Absolutely. Did he? What are those things that that you look for in a financial planner? Like if you were at finding a financial planner to manage your finances with the finances of a friend? What would that shortlist be? are the things that are key to look out for?

Didintle Mokonoto 

So, education is one. So for me, not necessarily do they have the CFP designation I have engaged with some amazing advisors who do not have the designation yet but aspire to get it. So education is key. The other one is how they engage with me. So do they respect me? Do they ask me questions? Or do they talk at me relatability is also a big one you know Can Can I actually relate to this person? Do I actually enjoy being around this person? You know? And and efficiency like service services is just it’s it’s so important I mean, am I going to spend hours signing documents and completing the same thing over and over again? Or are you just going to send me one thing that I need to sign without having to print it you know, access to my own information? Like do you have you know, is there a way for me to access my own data via you? Or do I have to contact the different platforms myself and you know, get all that stuff so I think services is also right at the center of all of that.

Louis van der Merwe 

Wow, that that is quite a list. I’m wondering like when we think of platforms that we’re engaging in I’d like how would you expect your advisor to reach out to you like what are the platforms that are acceptable and what are the ones that you know are not acceptable?

Didintle Mokonoto 

Do you mean in terms of meetings or how do you what do you mean

Louis van der Merwe 

so there’s quite a growing trend of clients you know, wanting conversations on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger and like Are those the things that financial planners should be engaging in or should we push them back into channels that we can control more I’d love to hear your thinking from a risk and technology and consumer perspective.

Didintle Mokonoto 

So I think it really depends on what the advisor is comfortable with to a certain extent because you do have to push yourself a little bit and also the type of clients that you’re engaging with so I definitely think if an advisor is trying to reach like a young person millennial or anyone younger than a millennial, you really need to be dynamic, we are all about boomboom power that’s that’s the best way I can put it to you know, let’s get it done. I’m in between meetings and you want me to do something so I need to be able to click on my phone quickly read it quickly and get it done you know, so whatever platform you’re using or system you’re using obviously data security is a key factor that you need to consider is the is your client protected is the data protected is a privacy protected easy I need to be able to access it very easily without having to have a million apps here and they you know, it must be central whatever platform you choose to use. QR codes are something that’s coming up and it’s quite exciting because then you might not even need a website you know, depending on on the structure of your business and the type of business that you have. a QR code could work for some people it might not work for others, you know, so really, I think as an advisor just try and explore and see the different communication and branding mechanisms and and software’s that are out there that you could possibly use, and maybe test it out with your children, test it out with your children sprains and see is this something that they would then consider if if someone came to them even advisor came to them and said, hey, let’s talk on this platform? Would they go would they buy? No, what would they do?

Louis van der Merwe 

it like a lot of financial planning firms look at using technology to automate the financial planning piece, but yet don’t use it when it comes to communication and service. And what it sounds like is that we’re missing the boat, we should be focusing on communication and service and using that to speed up things as opposed to automate the investment selection process for argument’s sake

Didintle Mokonoto 

I mean, I definitely think you know, you need to find a balance between the two because the investment process could take you so long if you’re doing these analysis yourself, you know, if you’re the one that literally looking through all the unit prices, and all the different unit trusts and all of that, so you need a balance with with your tech stack, but definitely, you know, client experience I think is so pourtant it’s just, and the thing with client experiences as clients, we don’t even know what we need until someone puts it in front of us. I’ll give you an example. So when I was in university, we used to catch cabs, like the old school cab, we, you just go to the corner of the mall, and there’s a guy in a car, and he’s got a Yellow Taxi sign. And then you end up taking his number. Every time you needed a cab, you had your cab people. But then Uber came and you start realizing how unsafe that was. Nobody knew where you were, nobody knew who that taxi driver was, but you used to catch those cabs at any hour of the day, you know, and then Uber showed me that I actually need to take my security more seriously. It’s actually inconveniencing for me to have to call the cab driver. And then he says, Okay, I can only pick you up in 20 minutes. You know, that was income. But I didn’t know it was inconvenient, because I didn’t know better until Uber showed me what I needed. Now, I would never go to a random cab and say, Hey, can you please take me to the mall? You know, I’d never ever do that.

Louis van der Merwe 

I love that thing of that you didn’t really know how inconvenient it was. And at some point, we might our clients might wake up and say, Oh, I didn’t really know how inconvenient this financial planning process was until something new came along.

Didintle Mokonoto 

Exactly. Exactly. And And the funny thing is, because of Google and technology and instant gratification, we also as clients, we’re starting to realize that, you know, we want things done faster, but we don’t know how to articulate it to the people that are giving us the financial advice, right? We, we just know that we want it done faster, but we don’t have the solution. And we need you that advisors to do this, you know, for us, help us help you. Let’s help each other.

Louis van der Merwe 

So it’s someone kind of understanding what’s important to the client, but also translating that to the software, either. Yes? And are you seeing some firms doing exciting things? What are you mentioned some QR codes? And what are the exciting things that companies are doing? Maybe globally?

Didintle Mokonoto 

Yeah, no, it’s so there are some exciting things. I mean, one, one simple thing that I’m thinking about is just, you know, creating a vault. So so if you have a family, you have children, and you have a will, and something happens to you, you need to your family probably has to wait until the mass of the High Courts, you know, elects the executor, and you know, you follow that process. But now we’re seeing things like vaults come about way, you know, there’s literally a QR code that would then allow for someone who has access to it to see what’s in the vault, you know, and what is in the vault is your policy information. It’s your, you know, investment information, it’s your beneficiary list, it’s your wall, you know, obviously, you wouldn’t be able to action anything, you still have to follow the necessary processes, but just access to information is a little bit easier now with technology. Things like reports having so your reviews, your reports, having a capability for someone to comment on it, or having a capability for someone to request the call from the report from a particular point on the report, you know, so we’re just seeing some exciting, you know, innovations that are really and it’s exciting because it’s coming from financial advisors, you know, it’s coming from people who have been dealing with this stuff for years and have decided, you know, what, I have the solution, I have the passion for this, I’m gonna I’m gonna produce this thing, you know, things like investor behavior, little notches that are very relevant to you so so we could be the same age we could be the same race, the same height, the same everything on paper, but we’re not the same person like you could be into red and I’m into pink, you know. So it’s very important for these these different technologies when they pushing marketing to your they pushing, you know, little nudges that must be relevant to what you want. And data is is the center of things like that. It’s the center of driving some of those those those processes, you know, data driven processes. I think that’s just the key. They

Louis van der Merwe 

are super exciting. And you mentioned that the accuracy and clearly having clean data in your practice is so important. And I want to reiterate that it can get very messy when you have all these multiple sources of data to deal with. Where do you go to when you know you’re in the process of cleaning up your business? Do you employ someone or are they services are they to help you Yep, so what’s your data,

Didintle Mokonoto 

um, depends on the depth of the data, I guess I would say, if it’s if it’s sort of data that is in your CRM system, you might want to just employ someone for holiday work to kind of clean out the CRM system, that’s an option. Or you could do a bulk exercise and do some like industry download at bulk level, you know, your whole book and make sure that everything is clean, depending on if it’s coming through FEMA, or if you’re getting it, you know, as a PDF, but but do make sure that where you Wherever you’re getting on sourcing this data, it’s a reliable source that is trustworthy. It’s called golden source, you know, data, like it’s coming from the actual source. I think that’s the key, right, they

Louis van der Merwe 

exceed. And, you know, the next 10 years in financial planning and in our profession is going to look very different because we have this kind of aging way of financial advisors. And this shows all about the positive evolution of financial advice. Where do you see this profession heading?

Didintle Mokonoto 

It’s headed in a very exciting direction. I see this industry working so well with robots. So I see financial advisors having like hybrid businesses, we anything, so So obviously, the adviser would have studied and gotten the necessary education, but anything that really needs you to be too technical and to calculate things, the robot has your back, the robot is doing all of that for you. But then there comes a point where the robot cannot tell cannot tell your client. So if, if you’re sitting in front of a client, and you say, so do you want tea? Yes, I’d like some tea. Thank you. Would you like it in a mug? Or would you like it in a tea cup? Was the right answer? There is no right answer. It depends on what I feel like having it in, you know, if I want to hold the mag, you know, and you know, have a large portion of the tea, then I wanted to know, Mike, I want to be a lady and I wanna you know, have it with a sore southerner wanted in a teacup. But that goes down to the relationship that the advisor has with the client, you understand that Didi is the type of person that wants to drink from the tea cup, you know, whereas the robot would then make the tea and make sure that the tea is perfect, the temperature is perfect. But the advisor understands me so well, that they can you know, already when I walk in, they know that Okay, I need to get the tea cup for DD, it’s a tea cup kind of day.

Louis van der Merwe 

your social media account showed us at the high tea.

Didintle Mokonoto 

Exactly, exactly. So it’s Yeah, it’s a hybrid, I think the industry is moving in that direction. And we need to be open to it right? I really don’t think technology is there to take our jobs, I don’t think that it will take our jobs. We just have to evolve and we need to, again, support you know, anyone that that is in a position way they job might end up being redundant, it’s our responsibilities to kind of help them whether it’s an employee, or whether it’s a colleague, or someone that you know, when you you know, you might just need to nudge them and say, Hey, the industry is moving in this way. Have you thought about this? You know, it’s actually our responsibility to preserve everyone that’s in this industry?

Louis van der Merwe 

Absolutely. And that gap between the people that have and the people that don’t have Act, the process of narrowing it and upskilling people and saying, okay, we want you to be more valuable contributor in in this business.

Didintle Mokonoto 

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I’m thinking about even, you know, the advisors who are thinking of, or not even thinking that they are reaching retirement age, they’re at a stage where they probably cannot give advice anymore, but they don’t, they don’t know who to hand over to, and they, you know, the process of succession planning, you know, hasn’t started, you know, it didn’t start in the early stages. So now they, you know, you know, thinking how can I do this in a more in the most efficient way, in a way that would protect my clients in a way that would preserve my clients, assets. And, you know, they books, it’s such a, it’s such a interesting journey, when you when you’re talking to an advisor, who’s put with both a practice from scratch, and now they, they don’t want to sort of neglect a client’s but they have to retire. So I think, you know, in the future, we as we work in towards the future of the industry, we really need to think about the succession planning strategies, you know, how, how are we supporting advisors to hand over, you know, clients in the best way possible? How is technology helping with this, you know, in terms of valuing the books and valuing, you know, the overall business how how is technology assisting in that in that space? We have to be thinking about that

Louis van der Merwe 

so technology is not just something that you have to leave to the younger plan is it can also benefit you in unlocking the value in the practice that that you bought without you having to I guess control and understand every piece of it.

Didintle Mokonoto 

Yeah I mean I think it would be so much easier if someone bought a business that was digital. If someone is buying a business and everything is in a yellow for that and you know you still need to find those it makes it a lot harder for for the handover process. But if everything is digital, and you can literally click here and show them you know your business, it makes it easier for you to sell your business it makes it easier for for it to be evaluated as well. Yeah.

Louis van der Merwe 

Didi. Thank you so much. This has been a wonderful conversation if people want to reach out to you and and have a conversation where’s the best place for them to do so.

Didintle Mokonoto 

Okay, so the one place is LinkedIn. So just simple during demo Kanata. The other place would be Instagram so I’ve started I actually play golf. So I’ve started a financial education slash golf blog on Instagram. It’s called 19th with dinky that’s an as a 19th hole, the 19th hole. So yeah, they can reach me on Instagram or they can reach me on LinkedIn.

Louis van der Merwe 

Lovely and find you on the golf course for some advice to

Didintle Mokonoto 

definitely they’ll find me on the fairway

Louis van der Merwe 

the driving range this year again, Didi. Thank you, Lee. Bye