#270 Nellie Fung – Transcript

Fraser Jack
Welcome back to the xy advisor Podcast. I’m Fraser Jack and today I am joined by values based financial advisor Nelly Fung.

Nellie Fung
Welcome. Thank you, Fraser, for having me on your podcast.

Fraser Jack
It’s wonderful to have you along. Now, I do want to give the listeners a very quick overview of just what you’re doing at the moment. And where are you working?

Nellie Fung
I’m a values based financial advisor. We are based in Ivanhoe in Melbourne. At the moment, we’re looking to grow our financial planning business. So we are a converged accounting, self managed super fund and financial planning firm, and is a very exciting time. You know, knowing that there’s lots of opportunities for advisors to help clients now that a lot of advisors are leaving the industry. So we do our best to help clients who not having access to the advisors who, you know, work on.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, wonderful. I look forward to exploring all these sorts of things throughout the podcast. But before we get into all that detail, tell us about your journey. Tell us about your story. How did you decide to become a financial advisor?

Nellie Fung
Good question, Fraser. So I started off as a certified practicing accountant back in Singapore. And when I came to Australia, Melbourne in particular, in 2006, I was looking for work in O’Brien’s has got this opportunity of three days accounting and today’s financial planning. So I’m really fortunate to get my first job with O’Brien’s and I’m here 15 years on. So after six months, I decided that financial planning is so much more meaningful, like you can have an impact on the life of your clients. So it’s not just about numbers, but it’s more about how do I make a positive difference to clients. Help them to have peace of mind knowing that, you know, your future is secure. Because we do cash flow projections, we talk to them about what’s important. And and we keep them on track to achieve what they say is important. Most importantly, is spending more time you have with your family rather than just working. Yeah. Now

Fraser Jack
15 years is an amazing, an amazing time to spend at one firm. Obviously, it’s a it’s a it’s a place that you feel very comfortable and love being involved with. I just want to go back to that transition, though, when you thought you know, all of a sudden, the difference between a role of you know, 233 days accounting and two days is planning, we’re finding that the accounting was primarily obviously based on numbers, there’s more past orientated and the planning was more future. What were your thoughts around? Was it was it past and future type things? Or how are you seeing the difference between the two roles back then?

Nellie Fung
Yes. So I was practicing as an accountant back in Singapore, I had two years of external audit experience four years of commercial accounting in a listed company. And then I ventured into financial planning for a short while with AIA Singapore. So when I came to Australia, I met my husband was Australian born Chinese. So we got married, and I decided that I need to come to Australia because his parents are all here and his only son. So when I was looking forward, I was really open with options like and I’m thankful that I found a job that allows me to assess whether should I go back to accounting? Or do I want to consider financial planning? And back to your question is all about forward looking? I do not like to look at past records. What’s past is or any past, you can’t change the past. But you can always plan for the future. Yeah.

Fraser Jack
And so that real change that you could effect on the clients was all about what they can do from here, not what they did in the past. That’s right. Yeah. So talk us through your journey. You started there 15 years ago? How long was it before you decided that financial advice was for you? Yeah, it

Nellie Fung
took me six months, because I was doing all this, you know, MYOB, I taught myself that software. And doing all these past records, and I had the opportunity to work with really good advisor, Leon Moran. And you know, it’s all about how do we improve a client’s financial situation by helping them with tax effective strategies as well as plan in events, make sure they’re on track to achieve their goals, if they are not, we also have challenging conversation, because at the same time, I learn about mistakes that people make in their journey that I make sure that I do not make the same mistakes. So you learn from people’s mistakes and all of us have made mistakes before. And we learn from people’s experience. And you know, over the years, I’m really thankful with clients giving me good feedback on advisor ratings is a really great feeling to have a positive impact on people’s lives. Yep,

Fraser Jack
wonderful. Absolutely. Well said. Tell me about your journey. Over those 15 years from sort of a new advisor into, you know, introducing values based and goals based type conversations, tell me about how you have grown over that over that time.

Nellie Fung
Yes. So I started doing all the cross border exams, and got my certified financial planner in 2008. So that’s about two years after join O’Brien’s and I became an authorized rep of Cal financial. So Cal financial provide a lot of great learning opportunities as well. And we had business coaching in 2012. That’s really when we started to move away from just figures and dollars and cents, we learn about having that live values based conversation at the first meeting. So most clients will come to us thinking that they’re only talking about investments, and you know, what they want to achieve financial goals. But at the first meeting, we always say, hey, it’s all about you. Tell me more about what’s important in your life. And most people are talking about their family career, at the end, what do they want to achieve? And, you know, legacy and giving back to the community so, so, so much more than just dollars and cents?

Fraser Jack
Yep. Tell me about that coaching. How did that take place? And how did that really change your career in your in the way that you operated?

Nellie Fung
Yep. So initially, we didn’t really have everything documented. So everything is in our head, you know, all the processes. And we just learned from experience. But then we had business coaching, again, thanks to count financial, who provide all these opportunities. So we took out the business coaching, back to basic and document everything, every single step. The main reason for doing this is for ease of training for new members. And also making sure that every advisor in our firm have a consistent approach. And the client is a client of the firm, when a client walks in, no matter which advisor the client sees. They see this consistent approach. And it’s all about caring for the coin, making sure that we listen to what’s important to them.

Fraser Jack
consistent approach to me is such an important part. Your firm now is quite, you know, is growing. I Brian’s I think you mentioned to me, previously, there’s about 30. Staff. That’s correct. Yeah. So so with this consistent, documented approach, how has that helped you to be able as one of the planners in the office to be able to then demonstrate to say, the accountants in the office exactly what you do? And how you doing?

Nellie Fung
Good question. So we start off having the business coaching just for the financial planning team. And then we roll it out to the accountants and a self managed Superfund team so that we encourage collaboration. So there’s one particular document we call the one page financial plan, which is a spreadsheet that shows the cash flow, the assets, liabilities and the defensive plan, meaning do you have wills estate plan? Do you have insurance in place, so that is a common document which accountants and advisors share. And, as I mentioned before, the client is a client of the firm, and we want the client to be able to benefit from all the services that we can provide under the same roof, so the client has come to our office once or twice a year, depending on how regular they need reviews of their situation. So they don’t have to see an accountant for the tax and accounting work, and then see the financial advisor at different times. So they just come in and everything will be delivered at the same meeting.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, amazing experience. So the so that one page financial plan, we’ve got we love a good spreadsheet, is is something that the accountant can instantly visually see that, that they need something in over here, whether it’s, you know, legacy or you know, family conversations or, or estate planning or, or, or financial advice, they can instantly see what they do and don’t have a where they need and then just bring you into the meeting.

Nellie Fung
That’s correct. So at our firm, we are fortunate to have even clients, three generations, family groups that we look after. So you know, our clients have a lot of trust in us because they’ve been with our friends, some of them since 1976. And my oldest client at the moment is 98 years old. Yeah, and we look after them and three, four generations, which is good because it’s all about how you pass on your heart and wealth tax effectively to the next generation. And then to the next.

Fraser Jack
And on it goes. You mentioned 1976 I Brian’s was formed originally and it’s been a family business since Does that mean that a lot of your your clients are also families, or, you know, family businesses, as well as as that matched up between the what Brian’s is and what your clients look like?

Nellie Fung
We do have family businesses, but we also have big businesses, that we, you know, we work with pitcher partners and other big accounting firms as well. So, you know, different accounting firms work together, and it’s all about which firm fits the client the best.

Fraser Jack
Amazing, okay, yeah. So you actually go through with some other accountants and work out where the strengths are, and then you can refer off to each other? That’s correct. Yeah, that’s brilliant. Now, I wanted to talk to you about the concept of your clients, obviously. Now, if they’ve if they’ve come as part of a family accounting business, and there’s been a lot of time working on numbers and figures, how do you then have those conversations with them around, you know, goals based or values based planning and start having really deep questions and conversations around what their what their hopes, dreams, goals and aspirations are? In the future? When when say, let’s say, traditionally, there might have been an accounting clerk?

Nellie Fung
Yeah. So when, when a new client, ring us up, to find out how we can help. So we have a conversation with them, for example, a business owner, right? What are your future plans? What do you want to achieve? And then it’s not just about your business, other than your business? What are your goals in life? Right, so that most people talk about why they’re in business is to provide for the family. And we find out all about whether, you know, do you need to look after your parents or, and do you have children, so we learn more about the clients are about building relationship and trust, and not just about figures. And we’re not a traditional accounting firm. In the sense, we are more about helping our clients keep growing. And we’d like to work with people with growth mindset. And we even help people who lost their business in GFC. And, you know, get them back on track, as long as they’re happy to put in the work. So is it like, it has to be a collaborative approach. And we only help people who want to help themselves. Yeah,

Fraser Jack
work with and collaborate together. I do like that growth mindset comment. Do you have any. So if they come in, and they’re not, and they’re not like that, that way, that when you refer them off to another firm is two

Nellie Fung
ways. So we will have that conversation, the live values based conversation with the coin? And then we will see whether, you know, are they the type who will put in the effort to work with us? Or are they just after compliance work? So it all depends on the profile of the client and the willingness of the client to work with us to achieve what they say is important? Yes, it’s just like coaching.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, absolutely. Now, tell it talk us through your process. So you mentioned if somebody brings up your what, how does it start? Does it start with a phone call to work out whether they’re a fit? Or how does it start?

Nellie Fung
Yes. So when we have a new prospect hiring us, or via referral, referred by our clients, we will speak to the new person and say, we have a process, which is an online questionnaire, it will just take you five minutes for the first one to determine for us to determine what’s important to you. And it’s thought provoking exercise, which helps the client to think about different areas in their life that is important, not just one aspect. And then there’s this other 15 minutes questionnaire for them to fill in all about their financial details, and least a short, medium and long term goals. So we will process the information of a first no obligation meeting, just to go through with the client to give them a feel about how we approach the work. And we are there for a long term relationship. We’re not looking for transactional, one of

Fraser Jack
transactional We think too, there you go. See you later. Now that that questionnaire, that’s the same questionnaire, it’s about 15 minutes long, you ask a few of those deeper emotional questions in that as well as just a general overview of their their current financial situation.

Nellie Fung
Yes. So as I mentioned, from the start, we are values based advice. So we find out what’s important to the client, you know, do they want to what do they want to achieve at the end of the day? And then why why are they doing what they’re doing? Yeah. So it’s so important to understand the why first,

Fraser Jack
yeah. And then with that, why, how do you dig deep enough to know what the like What the Why is whether it’s the true way or not?

Nellie Fung
Asking the right questions. And every client is different. So sometimes, for example, I have a client who came to me recently, and oh, Nellie, I’m just interested in investing the cash in my self managed super fund. Can you just provide advice on this, I say I’m sorry, because of the new rules, I need to find out more about you. And whether in the first place is a self managed Superfund right for you. And you have to make sure that your super fund is compliant before I even can provide advice. So I have to do all this due diligence as well. You know, we have to do so many exams, we want to keep our license. And we want clients to understand that the there to look after all areas of their life, not just one aspect.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, very good. So So you go through that first no obligation meeting, how long does that first meeting go for?

Nellie Fung
is usually about one hour.

Fraser Jack
And in that meeting, you’re really defining what their goals are, and how you can help them?

Nellie Fung
That’s correct. So after they’ve done the online questionnaires, we put all the information into that one page financial plan, we call it we summarize, what are the sources of income, the expenses, we forecast the tax payable. And we look we list all the assets and liabilities and also least whether Did they have a will in the questionnaire, they will say whether they have a will or powers of attorneys? Do they have insurance? So on the one page, you know, all the important facts are there? And we go through them, hey, this is this, what is reflective your current situation? So a lot of clients really value that one page summary of everything that is important for them. And we even write down on the right hand side, what are the values, their goals break down into really short, medium long term, and we make sure they’re smart goals. You know, if someone says, I just want to retire a 60, I want to have a comfortable life. And we ask, what does that look like? And we dig deeper? Like, what do you mean by comfortable? Do you want to go to for holiday every single year? And how much are you going to spend? So we really try to get smart goals out of them with with like time trains, the amount of money they want to spend, you know,

Fraser Jack
yeah, I remember a financial advisor, one saying to me when somebody said they wanted to live a comfortable retirement would say to his clients, all right, so you just need a comfortable chair, then Is that Is that all you need? Or do you want to live a dignified retirement and be able to do these sorts of things? Yeah, specific is really important. Isn’t it with that, with that SMART Goal Setting understanding? What does it mean to them? And then and then some of the parts of the the, the SMA, T and smart can can mean different things. But obviously, it’s it’s a very big piece defining that what does it mean that that measurable aspect and, and that I’m really taking that down into specifics? Very good. So that’s the first, that’s the first meeting that you go through with them. And as you mentioned, it’s no obligation during that meeting is that when you present what you do, and your fees, your charge, and all those types of things,

Nellie Fung
we don’t present the fees until we can demonstrate value. So for the first meeting, the most important is the client is all about what’s important to the client, we let the client share with us what they really want to achieve. And then we show them, show them examples of how we can help them. And after the meeting, we’ll send a summary of what’s discussed in the meeting. And we provide a fee proposal with services and options for them to consider and see whether it is how they want to work with us. And yeah, so we give clients options on how they want to work with us. And we emphasize that it’s for the long term, we are looking for long term relationship and collaborative approach. So it’s not just about us what we can do for you. But also, a client needs to put in the effort to, you know, make sure we’re on track. And we’re not afraid to have challenging conversation. If a client wants to say, for example, if a client comes to me at age 50, and he or she says I want to retire 60. But the lifestyle is like you know, you keep spending money without considering putting money aside or reducing your texts and posting your retirement asset. So we were not afraid to have that conversation. And say, you need to work with us. This is your financial roadmap. We build it together, but you need to put an effort to make sure it works for you.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, so really key that accountability aspect doesn’t have holding the clients accountable for what their behaviors are. And so just I just wanted to quickly respect to that one page financial planner, again, that’s obviously a very integral part of these firms. meetings in compensation as well as review meetings and other meetings. Did you? Did you guys build that? Or was that something that you found? Or how did you come across that tool? And obviously, it’s a very important part of your process.

Nellie Fung
Yeah. So we got the one page financial plan from a business coach back in 2012. But we fine tune it over the years. And, you know, we customize it to our firm’s branding. So and we train our accountants to use that one page financial plan as well. And our clients love it ever since 2012. When we rolled that out, we went back like clients has been with us since then, or even before then they can see that from every six months or every 12 months, they can see the value of the assets keep growing. And even clients in the drawdown stage, they’re so amazed that they’ve been drawing tax free income streams. And yet the capital value of the assets are still vague, or even getting better because of all these active strategies that were put in place. Every single review. Yeah,

Fraser Jack
it sounds it sounds great. And as you mentioned, your clients obviously love it, because it’s very simple and easy for them to see where they are and where their progresses.

Nellie Fung
Yeah, at the end of the day, the client needs to understand exactly what value do they get out of the advice we provide, rather than giving them the you know, technical jargon, in the statement of advice, record of advice that’s so long and constant, I understand what it’s about. And the challenge to us advisors, Fraser is to make sure our clients understand, especially these days when we need informed consent.

Fraser Jack
Yes, absolutely. Understanding is a huge part of this. And I’ll probably come back to that a little bit later. Actually, I wanted to touch on the you mentioned the fee proposal earlier and the demonstrating the value, how do you then go back to client, you’ve got the one page? How do you then say, Look, this is a demonstration of some of the value that we can provide? And here’s the fee or charge?

Nellie Fung
Yeah, no question. So after the first initial no obligation meeting, where we uncover what exactly the client wants to achieve, and at that meeting, we asked them to prioritize their goals. So after the meeting, once we understand what exactly they want to achieve, we put into our fees and services proposal and say, hey, if we can help you too. So for example, back to the example of a client who comes to me and say, I just want to talk about investment in software SuperPhone. So we asked the client about what’s important to you, your family? Do you have an estate plan in place, even a self managed super fund itself, you need to make sure that there’s a binding death nomination, all that. So at the meeting, when you ask all this via values based questions, you uncover a lot more areas that the clients need to look into. So we will give them option if this is what you want to talk about. This is how we can help like tax effective strategies from now till retirement what we can do with you. And we estimate the tax savings. And then we propose the fee. And then we also say, hey, in addition to this, we can also help you to look into your overall estate plan or succession plan. And then we say this is how much it will cost. And it’s all back to the client for them to decide whether the value that we’re going to add to the overall plan and the costs associated with it, when they do they see the value.

Fraser Jack
Yes, very good. And I really liked that they were do us from now to retirement or from, you know, like from now to end you mentioning that you’re adding value not just instantly, but you’re adding value over a long term period.

Nellie Fung
Yeah. And we have so many examples of clients who we help over the years. So like I mentioned with there was a client who lost his business, you know, during the GFC. And he had to sell his family home. And he really worked with us. He worked hard and hung up his he lost his business at age 60. You know, which is, which was unfortunate, but he worked with us over 10 years and back in 2019 came to a stage where he’s 70. And you know, he was asked to keep moving his family home because he was renting. So we look at his superfan there’s more than enough cash for him to take out tax free and for him to buy that property. And now they’re all well set up with a little bit of Centrelink help and you know they don’t have to worry about being asked to move. So you know, are this intangible value to the client the peace of mind knowing that I’ve got a permanent home now, you know, and I am able to enjoy retirement.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, nearly there. That story gives me money. Goose bumps as you tell it, it’s so many great news stories like that every day that advisor can be extremely proud of how they’re helping people. So thank you for sharing that. You mentioned prioritization is part of the goal setting. Can you just tell us how you do that with the client when it comes to prioritizing goals?

Nellie Fung
Yes. So, back to the questionnaire. So the climatized, that is my short term goals, medium term, long term. And sometimes the client has so many short term goals, and some girls are like they can be achieved all at the same time. So we asked the client to say, you know, can you please tell me, which is your number one priority? And so we talked through it, it could be emotional, you know, and, and so the client will say, Hey, this is my number one priority is number two, and number three, so they’re very clear what they want to achieve. And within what timeline, and we’ll let them know whether it’s realistic or not.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, I feel like this is a really important part that people can skip over pretty easily. But the more time you spend on it, the more ownership as you mentioned, before the client takes in. And the more they’re prepared to put in the work. Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. No, thank you. So that’s, that’s the sort of the goal setting part you do that you you send off your proposal. Based on the value, you can add, obviously, short term, long term, long term value. Tell me about what comes next. What’s after that.

Nellie Fung
So once a client decide which option they want to go ahead, of course, they’ll sign off, and then we’ll start the process. And if it’s a new client, usually the process may take two to three months to complete, because we have to document and get all the facts right, before we provide appropriate advice. And our advice, we’ll get audited by our quality assurance team. And we walk the client through the implementation. Yep, yeah. And then we offer like a review meeting as well,

Fraser Jack
this two to three month period, I think I’m hearing more and more the length of time between sort of initial conversations with the client then and say the SOA or the the advice recommendations, this time frame is more likely to be the case. And in most situations, I spoke to some people recently, it was more like six months. But tell me about that. Then also the strategy going through the like you mentioned, understanding being such a pawn and part, once once you sit down once you’ve decided on what advice you’re going to provide, talk to me about how you go through that with the client. Yeah, so

Nellie Fung
the first part is once the client sign off and say they want to proceed and what exactly they want us to work with them on, we will get additional information, we get authority to inquire further, if it’s all about superannuation or investments that they already have. And we need to work with our internal team and do all this analysis and make sure that whatever strategies we propose, is going to get the client on the right track to achieve what they say they want to achieve. And we, like, always focus on strategies first and products last. So at the end of the day, we need to demonstrate that whatever recommendations we give to the con is always in the best interest.

Fraser Jack
Wonderful. And then as you mentioned implementation. From there, how, how important is it with your clients that you mentioned the accountability part, that you’re helping them track towards those goals?

Nellie Fung
Yeah, for example, if the client sign off on the strategies, we say, Hey, you should start salary sacrificing, for example, to bring down your tax payable. Let’s say, for example, back to a client who’s 50 years old, and if the client wants to retire 60, there’s only 10 years, right? It’s not a very long time, because time flies these days, and so every single year, the first is a new engagement. Usually we’re checking every six months to make sure the cars on track once they are well set up. And we do see them taking actions to implement the advice that we provide. We do check and make sure they do take actions.

Fraser Jack
It’s a pretty important part of that taking action.

Nellie Fung
Yeah. Because you know, you can have the best plan on paper. If you don’t take actions, nothing get achieved. Our clients are usually pretty good. And we just have to give them reminders like to take action before 30th June each year. And the clients love it when you know we use that simple one page plan to help them measure how it looks like six months ago or one year ago, two years ago that they can really there’s a time. They can refer back and see how far they’ve come and we do projections like 10 to 15 years ahead and see whether are they on track? Of course, things may change. And if there’s significant changes, we have to re forecast. And yeah, so at the end of the day is, you know that at different points in our life priorities do change. We will, like, tweak the plans accordingly. Yep.

Fraser Jack
Now, how was How is COVID had an effect? Obviously, you’re in Victoria on the business and your ability to work and how have you adapted?

Nellie Fung
Good question. We were lucky in the sense, financial planning side of things, we pretty much 90% paperless before COVID heat. And our firm has adopted a lot of technology, we use DocuSign, like maybe a couple of years before COVID. So we managed to just take your computers and put in at home. Of course, it was tough in 2020, especially with clients who were still, maybe 10% of Congress still struggling with technology, as I say we have very elderly callers who are like 80s, or 90s. So how would you go about doing it? So we use the phone to talk to them, and we mail out stuff to the client. So financial planning side is not too bad. And even the accounting side, we have been scanning documents. We have a client portal.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. Nice. Excellent. So technology has been a big part. Tell us about your technology journey.

Nellie Fung
And technology definitely play a big part. And we are really grateful for things like Microsoft Teams zoom in so many platforms, and clients who can handle this platform to use FaceTime or WhatsApp.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, that’s incredible WhatsApp, I’ve heard of a couple of different practices using WhatsApp, WhatsApp and WhatsApp groups. And just going going using the communication methods that the clients already have, I guess, on their phone rather than trying to create something new.

Nellie Fung
Correct. And it’s amazing how a lot of elderly clients or grandparents, they know how to use Zoom, you know, they even know how to use FaceTime, because they use it with their family, their grandkids,

Fraser Jack
it’s become it’s become one of those necessities, hasn’t it that people now know, everyone knows how to use a QR code. Most people know how to jump on an online meeting in some way. That’s right. Yeah. Apart from the one page plan, which is sounds amazing. Tell us about are there any other tools that you’re using in the practice that that help you along? You sort of mentioned the online questionnaire, but what other tools do you use?

Nellie Fung
The online questionnaire is actually as to will. So a lot of advisors use that. That’s brilliant, because that helps us to assess whether it’s a new prospect willing to put in the effort, like just 20 minutes, if a person is not willing to do the questionnaire, we know that they’re not the type of clients who are prepared to work with us. So that is how we screen clients who serious who are serious about getting ahead. If a person does anyone want to invest 20 minutes doing that, we find that I don’t think they are prepared to put in the work to collaborate with us to achieve what they say is important. So that’s the first step. Yep.

Fraser Jack
Yep. Brilliant. Now, tell us about the the use of LinkedIn, you, you seem seem to spend a bit of time on LinkedIn, tell us about how that how that works for you.

Nellie Fung
LinkedIn is really good, because it’s like, there’s so many professionals using LinkedIn. And I’ve learned from one of the amazing mortgage broker in my network. So he got like 90 likes, and he’s always posting so I’ve been active recently, because I I engage his friend who is really good with posting on LinkedIn. And yeah, it’s all about sharing our experience. And for people to know all about you before they even want to work with you. Like it’s all about knowing your background first. Yeah.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. interested in just getting to know the human behind the behind the the professional.

Nellie Fung
That’s right.

Fraser Jack
You mentioned earlier on that you’re licensed through count financial advisors. And tell us a little bit about that as it’s been a long term relationship.

Nellie Fung
Yes, our firm has been an authorized rep of Count financial even before I joined. So the two principals Mark O’Brien and Chris Mullins, they joined Cal financial in 2001, if I’m not wrong, so there was five years before I joined and count has been brilliant, like you know, over the years, there’s so many changes in the financial planning industry. And cow has always been very adaptable and making sure they look out The advisors, and count financial is the largest network of accounting based financial advisors. So there’s a high quality assurance in there. And I’ve learned so much personally, you know, in the last 15 years, from all the additional training in conferences that can put together for us advisors. Yeah.

Fraser Jack
So you find that when you go along to those, or participate in those types of conferences, there’s other businesses very much or very similar to your business.

Nellie Fung
Yeah. And also the advisors in a cow network. We are just like, colleagues, we help one another, we learn from one another. We don’t feel like hey, we are not in competition, but more about how do we help one another improve? And two years ago, I joined the count advisory council. So is a small team of advisors in different states, coming together to see how we can work with account leadership team to improve the, you know, the provision of advice and make sure we are client centric, at the same time. Comply compliant with the you know, the regulators.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. So the counter Advisory Council, tell us about, tell us a bit more about how what you’re doing in that space, and how it helps the other advisors in the group?

Nellie Fung
Yeah, so as a member of the counter Advisory Council, what we do is we listen to Members, any pain point, you know, as we all been through so many changes in industry, it was very painful back in 2018, and things keep changing and compliance getting harder and harder. And you know, how as a licensee can can help the members? Yes, so So, at the moment, we have a chair. He’s based in New South Wales. So we meet every quarter. And we bring the pain points from the members back to the leadership team and see how we can work together to make advise a more pleasant journey for both advisors as well as clients.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, wonderful, sort of solving problems and bringing everything together. I really like it nearly what have you got? Tell us about the future? What does the future hold? And have you got any plans to introduce anything in the future?

Nellie Fung
That future is definitely exciting, Fraser. You know, as planners, we are always forward looking at O’Brien’s. We are working on vision 2030 how we want them to look like in 2030. With the leadership of campus who is our corporate partner, we are building a plan. We call it vision 2030. And it’s not just about you know, achieving your financial KPI is also about giving back to the community, bringing along the emerging leaders of our firm and then in the network. How do we impact future advisors in a positive way? And it’s all about being a converged Accounting, Financial Planning type of businesses.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, amazing. I love that idea of vision 2030. Now, is that something that all say 30 staff get involved with

Nellie Fung
at the moment is the leadership group and Emerging Leaders people in our firm that we have identified as successor. So it’s good to be able to even look 10 years ahead how we wanted business to look like,

Fraser Jack
yeah, it certainly it certainly great for that vision of what what things want to look like. And then once you’ve got that vision nailed down, everything else just seems to come and into plan. Natalie, thank you so much for joining us today and telling your story and your journey and all the great things that you do on all the most shooting lots more, but a lot of the great things that you’re doing with your clients. If somebody wants to continue the conversation with you what’s the best way they can get hold of you?

Nellie Fung
They can Google Nellie Fung My name is not common so people can find me easily. And I believe my LinkedIn profile is the first one that comes up or even my advisor ratings page.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, wonderful. So that’s N-E-L-L-I-E Fung F-U-N-G, so if anybody wants to catch up with you, they can reach out now he really appreciate your time today and sharing your story. Thank you.

Nellie Fung
Thank you so much again, Fraser for the opportunity.