The New Normal for Income Protection #2 – Transcript

Fraser Jack
Hello, and welcome to this part two of our five part series on the new risk environment for income protection as we settle into the changes from IDX. I’m your host, Fraser Jack. And in this episode, our panel discusses the new mindset that advisors should adopt to move forward, including the idea of having a house view or a clearly defined insurance philosophy. Let’s dive straight into our conversation. Now. Welcome back to this episode, where we are talking around the new world of disability income insurance in the 2022. Moving forward, there was a lot of stuff going on. One of the big things I think advisors have to think about in this particular space is the mindset and you know, where do we? Where do we have our minds situated at the moment? You know, we’ve got to get out of that negative mindset into a more of a positive mindset be able to help clients the best we can. One of those things that we’re talking about is in insurance philosophy, or how do we specifically calculate how much cover or how we’re going to start calculating with all the new products around? John, what are your thoughts?

John Cachia
Yeah, well, we have had a view for a very, very long time that income protection is the core of the personal protection solution for clients. And to create the manasota, TN obviously goes from essentially, most people need the income to support their lifestyle. Okay, so And obviously, income protection is quite good, because it’s covers for injuries and illnesses. So it kind of covers for both. And then we’re building those covers around that, you know, the life insurance taping a trauma or critical illness cover and building those around those. I think with these changes that has come in, especially for the ones where we’re looking at, you know, significant reductions in, you know, how much they can actually receive for income protection? Well, if that’s the core, how is that then linking up to the other covers as well. And so, this is where the mindset or the way you think about the philosophy has been, has changed. And, you know, as we’re recording this in January, you know, I’ve actually had a lot of time to think about this, and you know, it still goes down to the default position of income are still the core solution and still working around. So I don’t think that mindset has changed or the way that my philosophy has changed around that. It’s really around, you know, the impacts on the on the other covers, and one of the biggest impacts is we really need to be more granular and more detailed in regards to what exactly we’re covering for. So it’s not just a matter of having a rough sketch that’s like, Hey, this is what roughly you need it for being real detailed on what it’s needed for. And a lot of the risk specialists that are on here will say that’s not news to them. But you know, for a lot of the site, general advisors, or the other people that were being specific on exactly what you’re covering for, is not only important when you’re setting it up, but moving forward in regards to the reviews, and what I’m talking about is obviously the debt, the percentage of the income that’s being replaced, or the expenses that are being done, you know, final expenses, like literally getting as granular as you can across all three. But also as well, too, when you think about things like own occupation definitions on income protection, and then referring to any occupation, well, then the importance of having either a super lean TPD and having an own occupation. And, you know, it’s very, very important that they’re all playing a, you know, a hand in the role of creating that certainty around. So, you know, let’s just use a very simple one. For example, if you’ve got a a provider that was providing at 75% of income and they are doing it at 70%. Well, obviously that extra 5% of income loss, you know, that needs to be covered up in regards to the lump sum expenditure. So, being able to just have that link but then when you Going from any to an occupation, if you’re not thinking about those super maximizers or those your own occupation definitions in, in regards to TPD? Well, you could be in a situation where clients are applying for two years, the injury is made permanent, you know, where are we going with this game. And so we just need to be really mindful that we’re looking holistically at the scenario. And I think we’ve been doing it for a while. And I’d love for the other advisors who are on the air here as well to is really having a stance of We are the professionals. And I think there was a period of time there were a lot of clients were coming saying, I want this cover, for example, and advisors fell into the routine of, okay, that’s what the client wants, that’s what I’m going to deliver. Now, we haven’t been doing this, but it just really emphasizes the point right now, it’s nearly impossible for a client off the street to know all of this stuff. Yeah. So we need to be making sure that we provide them with a full detailed analysis, but also with a philosophy and backing up of our understanding. And also to explain to them the links of the covers and how they play for a personal protection plan for for that individual. And I think the rise of comparison sites, the the rise of director market and caused a lot of those issues, but as an industry to hold firm and say, Hey, guys, we are the experts. And so there is this is our comprehensive plan, okay. And also to understand that the changes that have come and particularly in income protection, okay, the changes that they have in regards to life TPD and trauma cover, and ensuring that from the get go, you’re giving your clients the absolute a plan with the highest amount of claim ability that you can follow them. In

Fraser Jack
John, you’re, you’re a holistic adviser. So you you know, you’re not just doing risk specialist, but you’re also you know, helping their clients through all the other aspects of their life, how much how much time and then you putting into them where the client may, you know, as you said, My I’ve said, I just want this and use a lot, you sit them down and say no, no, actually, we need to, we need to drill down. And we need to get detailed on this. And we’ve got to do a good job of it. Is that something that you’re working with the clients then to say, no, no, you need to sit down, you need to listen to this, it’s going to take some time, and we’re going to get get to the bottom of it. Is that what you’re doing?

John Cachia
Yeah. So really, from the get go to matter of gathering all of the information, right? Let’s be honest, the actual thing comes in right from the start to understand that regardless of if I’m doing goal based financial advice, if I’m doing investment planning risk specialist, whatever it is, I think the same common thing, and this is actually embedded in more is knowing the client. And I think of right now in 2022, it’s getting that information. So from the get go, we just tell our clients, listen, we need to know absolutely everything about you, we’re going to be in a position where we know more about you than you know about you. So especially around your finances. So for you to come in here today and say that I’m coming to see you because I want $500,000 of life and tapered A. And that’s all cool and well. But that’s like you telling me that you want to have open heart surgery, because you’ve got some chest pain, yeah, we really want to kind of set the scene from the get go, that we are the professionals and that we will come back to you with a detailed analysis. Based on what our recommendations are. Now we will go through our philosophy, for example, a part of the onboarding process. So this is what our wealth creation framework looks like. This is what our personal protection framework looks like. And by the time when they’re going on to then jump as a client, they’re really buying into those philosophies. So we don’t personally bring on any clients who want us as a transactional advisor, and therefore, inherently we’re bringing on people who want to be coached through the philosophies.

Fraser Jack
It’s a really interesting distinction, isn’t it having having a philosophy that this is what we stand for, this is how we operate. And therefore when you when you step foot in here, this is what you get. Cathy, what are your thoughts?

Cathy Kayess
I definitely think just leading on from John, and it’s something as a full time risk specialist that I’m going back through and doing now is that philosophy, rewriting it, you know, if it’s not written already, because I know in my practice, it’s me and my boss, who’s the other advisor. And between the two of us, most of this knowledge or philosophy is in our head. So if something happens to one of us or another advisor when it comes on and wants to explain our philosophy to a client, or they don’t know it, because nothing’s written, and that’s, you know, we do it all the time. We’re like, I know, I don’t need to write it down. But getting it in writing so that you can say to the client, this is what we do. This is why we do it. This is you know, the specific details that we look at for each of your covers and why, you know, it’s important to cover all of these aspects. It also translates very easily then across into when you do your advice piece, because you’ve already got your philosophy there. To put the advice piece together, John made a point about clients coming in and dictating what they want. And we all have them. And my first question is, is, What’s your understanding of why you want that figure? And I have some wonderful clients are very articulate. I know what my mortgage is, this is what I want my insurance to cover. This is what my super will cover on that mortgage. And therefore, the you know, the property would be debt free to my independent children in that instance, because they can clearly articulate what they want. It does make sense that that’s an option for them, doesn’t necessarily mean I’m not going to look into the rest of their situation. No. But it shows to me that they do definitely have an understanding of what what they’re asking for. Yep,

Fraser Jack
exactly. Right. I think philosophy that you’re writing it down is such an important part, and then to be able to demonstrate it and, and I think philosophy, I love the word philosophy comes at basically your experience, right? It’s everything that you’ve learned along the way and created in the will your opinions, and mindsets along the way. So Serena,

Serena West
yeah, I was gonna comment that when I’m speaking with clients around what they need, and you’re right, we do all have people coming in thinking that, that they’ve already predetermined the outcome is, is to go back and think, okay, so what do they really need? And what are they willing to trade off? You know, depending on where they’re at in life stage, and what lifestyle they’re leading, we do see quite a number of clients, for example, that have children at really quite expensive, private schools. And I like to understand from them, okay, so if something happens to you, or your children staying at that school, you know, do we need to find another $70,000 a year, for how many years? And what we do then is go into those school websites, download the fees, really map it out, alongside all of the other things so that you can say, Well, what do we really want to happen? And for most people, they’d like their life to stay as similar as they can. So I normally would say to clients, we’d like to quarantine your basic reality of where you live, and your support network and where your children go to school. So that then, you know, some of the other things might might change. But but we’ve got that base, that that will be really, really similar. It also makes it far easier over time when we’re looking to review those clients. So that we can say, Okay, well, how much older your kids are, okay, we can take those school fees off, they’ve happened, you know, it’s, it’s gonna balance out over the longer term, it’s quite fun. And I would want clients to be detailed with us on those things, you know, like, it needs to work,

Fraser Jack
I think, I think it’s a really good point, Serena that the trade offs that that conversation with the client really allows them to take ownership for the decisions being made, or you know, they they basically take that decision to say, Oh, we will, you know, at their trade conversation allows them to take ownership. Tell me about how much time you spend with your clients on that trade off conversations and how deep you go, because I think this is a really, really important part of submitting the reasons why they have the cover.

Serena West
Oh, look, you really want people to understand that, you know, I’m not looking at my reality, I’m actually trying to understand their reality. And I want them to share with me what their life rhythm means, you know, how you can see from a family, like, do you want to continue working 60 hours a week if this happens, or that happens, and explaining to them also that if one person gets ill out of mom and dad, potentially, the other person’s going to have to step back and look after them as well. Like, when one person is sick, it doesn’t just affect the sick person. And so I’m quite story based when I’m dealing with clients. And you know, I said, Look, who’s taking up the beans, who’s going to school sports, carnivals, like, how are we going to make all of this work, and it’s not going to be any easier. If there’s epic financial pressure. The other thing is discussing with them that their costs typically go up when they’re sick, as much as we have. And I know it’s been under pressure. But we do have a pretty amazing health system in Australia. If you want particular care at times, it’s going to cost you money. Or if you want control over some of that care. So we need not to be thinking all that sir, I’ll just spend less because you’re not going to spend less. Also, there’s the psychology of when someone’s sick that often they’re like, Oh, my, you know, they might be thinking themselves, gosh, my day has been awful. Let’s all go out to lunch. So instead of having lunch at home, that might cost the family $10 They’re all going out now 250 Because they don’t know how long that person’s got or it’s been traumatic. So it’s all those small things and I think it’s primarily because like a lot of advisors, you know, you’ve lived 100 clients with clients, and you’ve watched this happen so many times. So I think clients like you to talk through that.

Fraser Jack
It’s amazing how clients can form part of your insurance philosophy.

Dr. Jeff Scott
Yes, I think the one thing that myself and the MetLife team have looked at when we’ve gone into advisors offices was will a customer who enters your office had the same experience in relation to assessment of insurance need, regardless of the advisor, or regardless of the paraplanner, or regardless of the administration staff. So what we found is that if you don’t have a consistent House view, to ascertain the appropriate need for insurance, it actually becomes really difficult for the advisor to assess both the needless affordability for each customer, because what you’re going to have is, and we, again, the MetLife team have actually gone into various offices. We’ve asked this question, we’ve gotten to the paraplanners. And we said, okay, calculate this, you have all the same information, so that a complete fact find good, complete needs analysis. And we got to the paraplanners, to say, Okay, how much insurance does this person need? Then we’ve gone to the two or three financial planners or risk specialists in the office and asked the same question. And ironically, if there are five people in the office, so three pairs, so two pair players and three advisors, we got five different answers. And what we realized was that there you need to have a house view, what are the non negotiables so if a person is between the ages of 18, and 65, non negotiable is always income protection. If a person has any debt whatsoever, then there’s a non negotiable that there will always be life insurance to pay off the debt. But then the question is, okay, we know this. Now, what else do we need, and making sure that there’s a consistent philosophy there, what we found is that most people don’t have it, some people have rules of thumb. Some people have various things. And the, in the stuff that Kathy and Serena and John have mentioned, again, Kathy mentioned that it’s in most people’s heads, but they haven’t articulated it. More importantly, they haven’t communicated to the other people in their offices. The one thing that MetLife is doing right now is we’re actually providing coaching for advisors and AFS cells to actually construct their house view, to ensure consistency of the customer experience within the office. And the reason we’ve done this, as we said, okay, there’s gonna be some things that as Serena said, you’ll get to certain clients, you’ll say, Okay, we don’t have a one size fits all. And we’ll ask that particular question that says, if it’s a yes, we go down this path, if it’s no, we go down the other. And it’s almost like a tree diagram to get to those responses, but you ask it for every question. Once you get that consistency, then you start saying, Okay, we now know, the assumption short, we now know the types of products that we need. So whether it’s going to be death, or TBD, or trauma, income protection. And we also know what additional benefits and features we’re going to have for every client, and we know the process where you’re going to do to get there. If we don’t do that, then again, if acid comes in and knocks on your door, and they say, Okay, Jeff, how did you get to this number? How did you get to this sum insured, and there have been advisors in the past to say, Oh, we always give them a million dollars for life cover. Or we always give them $500,000 For the TPD. If you haven’t customized it, to meet the specific needs of the clients, and it’s a consistent process you go through, then you’re going to reach your best interest duty.

Fraser Jack
Yep, I absolutely agree. And I think it’s probably one of those things that we should be having a lot more conversation outwardly, in groups of advisors around talking about it as well, because, you know, the House view is one thing, but there probably should be an industry view or, you know, a collective of, you know, reasonings as to why we think this way, because I mean, I’m sure you’d see some massive variations and different levels of color coming through from one advisor to the next, what are your thoughts

John Cachia
on just, you know, understanding the client? One thing, obviously, being able to articulate you know, how the covers have obviously come out, obviously, the client to agree or not agree to them, but I think one of the biggest things that we can obviously use in 2022 is technology. You know, really guys, it’s around embracing technology. Now we spoke, I think you spoke to serene around how much time you talk about the trade offs and stuff like that. Remember everyone that this is a repeat conversation that you’re having, and usually where this repeat conversations, this technology, like videos and stuff that you can send them educational content, like when we’re talking about onboarding clients, or even our existing clients when they’re coming up for review. There’s nothing stopping us why then just going hey, listen, watch this quick video that I’ve recorded about how I calculate the insurances. Like a lot of other industries are doing it and I think the advice industry is now really ramping up in this area. It’s around using technology as well, too. So to show this, and what we do as a simple kind of add on is, you know, we talk about like probably a little bit more technical than Probably issued I like the word just trade off some we use around disposable assets and stuff like that as well to just like what would you dispose off? And, you know, it’s very interesting and and what I’m looking at when I send like this question sheet to them for them to kind of get back, which is like a jot form, I’m looking for like in discrepancies actually. So I’m actually looking at like, all would sell everything. And so and then I’ll just talk about that point, I’ll be like, Okay, let’s talk about, you know, your sell down everything. So you’re literally going to get rid of all of your passive income streams from all of your investment properties, or this or that, and they’re like, ah, yeah, I didn’t quite think about that. And it just shocks these kinds of deepening into the philosophy that you’ve been speaking about. And usually after doing that, maybe two or three times. So let’s say by year two or year three, they’re not questioning why you’re reviewing their cover, they’ve increased their debt level, so you need to increase their covers, or whatever it is, they want to be indoctrinated in your process in your philosophy. So it’s really about for us anyway, about getting clients who believe it a certain way that I would hope that even if ASIC kind of knocked on their door, they could at least from a very basic level go Now I understand why I’ve got life insurance deeper, a trauma, cover and income protection.

Cathy Kayess
So John, just on that, you’re talking about sending a video out to someone to gauge their understanding of a concept. Now, it sounds like you’re asking them to do follow up questions. So you gauge whether they’ve understood is that

John Cachia
Yep, so I’ll just quickly run through it, just we’ll just do a little bit of a dummy run just for Hey, Kathy, thanks for jumping on. Jumping on. What we’ve got is a bit of a question set that we’ve got at the below this video, just what I want you to go get you to have an understanding of is, you know, how we calculate our certain types of covers, you know, life insurance, Deputy Barbae. And what we believe in XYZ it okay. So we’re really just giving them a reminder. Now, if people aren’t good on videos, they can obviously just link a PDF sheet or a house view, like just talking about where you just kind of saying to them, Hey, this is what we do ya. And a follow up after you reading this content is I just want you to fill in these questions for me. Now think about from a holistic point of view, this is very similar to a risk profile that we did over and over and over and over and again, in the insurance game, you know, back in the day, we sit there, do a needs analysis with the client pretty much for an hour. Yeah, it’s just around how can we? How can we use technology to get repeat conversations going? Okay, but then have deeper conversations. What so when that question came up with the client go, and I’m going to liquidate everything, yeah, and leave out of a tin box. Rather than spending an hour on the repeat stuff. I’m spending half an hour on deepening the conversation going to potentially like Serena is around trade offs and stuff like that.

Cathy Kayess
Yeah, I suppose it’s just the clarification. For other people that sending the information to the client may not be enough to show that the clients understood it. So you’ve gone that step further, to make sure that you’re doing something after that video to show that the client actually responded to you in some way. So I think just making sure that if you are going to use the technology, right, to have that second step to show that the clients either acknowledge that they’ve listened to it, read it, signed it, what should or whatever, or having those follow up questions, because I think there’ll be a lot of people who go, Yeah, let’s do technology. Let’s send this video, let’s send out this flyer, let’s, you know, hopefully not post this letter. But what they’re not doing is that second step, which is showing that the client has actually actioned what we’ve said to them, because I know that there’ll be instances that people will say, Well, you can’t prove that the client actually understood because you’ve got no information back from the client to show that they have actioned what you’ve done. So I think that’s just what I was getting to, with John’s point in terms of using technology is to make sure that they’re there that second point of contact with that client responding. Yep,

Fraser Jack
I think there’s definitely, technology is a great thing to be used. And I think we can use it a lot in the preparation as well, prior to speaking to the client and giving them the understanding that there’s going to be a fairly in depth conversation and some of the answers for those, that compensation is going to be really important to how these things turn out in the past. Jeff, I was really interested in what you said about some of that work that you’re doing with advice practices around their house view and understanding you know, and and been able to develop and document and write down what their philosophy is and and their process around, you know, talking to the client and having those trade offs. I think what I’m really what I really want to try and focus on here is like with the mindset, how do we how do we send advisors out there in To into 2022, you know, being excited about the, the new products that are there and being excited about how they can help their clients, you know, in in this new world.

Dr. Jeff Scott
And I think there’s two things that Fraser, the the first thing is that the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in July 2021, actually looked at the products that are going to be out there based on the reference product or individual disability income insurance that they produced. And they said, based on that product, which effectively was the blueprint for many products in the marketplace now, they said, based on that product, we still have in Australia, we still have the best income protection product in the world. So when we look at what’s in the UK, in the US, my country of birth in Canada, look in South Africa. In most of the western world, we look at the income protection products, the ones we have in Australia, are still the best features, the best definitions, the best options in the world. So for me, that’s still exciting. We’re still providing world class products to our clients in Australia, which I think that’s exciting about the other thing that I get excited about is that there was a Hilda’s survey that came out, that basically said that 45% of Australians are financially illiterate, which means there is a, there’s a underlying need for the services that we provide, as financial advisors, as risk specialists, as insurance providers, to make sure that these people get their affairs in order. So knowing that we have the best products in the world, and that there’s an inherent need to provide the education support and advice to these clients. It gets me excited.

Fraser Jack
Well, fantastic, John. Yeah,

John Cachia
I think, I think one thing has been a bit of a, an eye opener for us is around just having a bit more of an understanding about what we actually do. And I know that sounds a bit strange, but we’re no longer money managers, or just do money management, we’ve got a big basis on coaching people to these plans. And so when you think about someone that you’ve got come in, you might have two or three meetings, whatever your process is, you’ve probably seen these people for a maximum of say, three, four hours before they’re going off and taking these financial products. Again, we need to be improving that financial literacy. Like obviously, on the investment side, it goes without saying, you know, but even in the personal protection space, like really just trying to improve that financial literacy. And it’s really exciting for me, where I get to a point with a client where we’ve provided the literacy, like the education and it just like, yeah, I get it, John, I know why we’re increasing or know why we’re decreasing or like, that is awesome, because we can kind of just push that to the side, get deeper into another conversation and keep going. So I’m really excited around that. And I think it’s really a passion of mine, really trying to improve that financial literacy number.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, amazing. And tell me about the process itself. You know, we let’s talk about how long it takes to get through, you know, a client at the moment, I’m keen to hear all your thoughts here. How long does it take from from go to Whoa, to these days with with a with a, you know, a risk specialist client,

Cathy Kayess
I’ll take this one, I’m doing it every day. This is how long is a piece of string, because I love to tell my clients, you know what, we can do this, we can research everything, we can get you the right product, we can put an advice document together, and we could do an application and maximum that’s going to take me for weeks, right? Because they’re not my only client that I’ll be dealing with. There’ll be multiple requests for information from the client, from probably a super company, potentially other insurance providers if they’ve got current cover. And then you might throw in, you know, the health of the client. Right? Which, you know, that’s a pre assessment underwriting. So there are so many factors that are not actually in our control in terms of how long this process is going to take. I can’t even knock down sometimes to a client how many exact times I’m going to need to contact them about things because they’ll come back to me with Aiya. Kathy, I went to the doctor’s the other day, and the doctor told me blahdy blahdy blah, and I’m like, right, so the entire four hours that I did, researching products and doing pre assessments, the pre previous week is now yeah, that’s been and gone. You know, I am restarting from scratch. So yeah, I said it clients, I will do this as efficiently as possible. However, this journey goes as quickly as you contribute to it. I said because it’s not just me doing it. Does that it have hours attached to it, I’d love to tell you exactly how many hours it takes. But there’s not I don’t think there’s any definite answer to that. Because it depends on the client,

Fraser Jack
I would have to say that the the assumption or around from a lot of clients are in error on this one. There are a lot of clients will just have the assumption. That’s easy, right?

Serena West
Oh, yeah, people do think that, unfortunately, yeah, it all is around the pre work. And that’s to make sure that that the work you’re doing is actually spot on. So you can’t be cutting corners and making assumptions around eligible service dates, if you’re intending to hold cover via super, you know, those are the sorts of things you have to check in on people at times have three or four different super funds. And then it’s like, well, do they have covering those funds as well? What are the dates attached to those? Are we going to keep those, you know, let’s pretend they’ve got a heart condition, or yes, we’re going to keep them all of those different things. You need to work together. And I also like people to feel this is actually about them. You know, when I’m meeting with people, I really want to know them and talk to them. It’s not a it’s not a conveyor belt. It’s not I’m just banging them through. This is this is special. And it I want to make it fun. So I’m normally really excited about my work. And people find me nerdy and annoying, and that’s fine. But I think clients appreciate the fact that you’re excited about this, and that you want to get it right. You’re not You’re not there to just flick it through.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, I think it’s, it’s a very important part of the process to walk into the meeting and walk in, you know, to those client conversations, being nerdy and excited and excited about being able to solve the issues that are in front of you,

Dr. Jeff Scott
John, there’s nothing wrong with being nerdy. And he decided, trust me.

John Cachia
That’s it, I think I think there needs to be like it’s around setting the expectation around everything kind of really good. And quality takes time. And that goes without saying like, you know, when we’re talking about doing things properly, and we’re talking about eligible service dates, for example, that takes time to find that information. Get that right. But I think there’s another bit as well, too, is, we also need to appreciate that, I’m not going to say that they don’t care at all, but they’ve care factor in regards to I need this stuff is at a pretty low level to start with you. So it’s a matter of why do I really need this stuff. Okay, I know I kind of need it, let’s get it done. And Aha, it’s gonna take me this long, it just, it is a bit of a painful process for the client, because we’re not talking about, you know, the sexy stuff. In most cases, we’re talking about the morbid stuff. But I think it’s once again, working side by side with technology to try and improve this area, it’s going to be a big one, which we’re going to you know, potentially talk about the future of this future this later on. But that’s going to be one I think the other one is, is that there’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to protection. There’s a lot of contributing people. So we’re talking about, you know, us in the client, for example. But potentially, we’re also talking about the superannuation provider as well, too, which is holding cover as well, too. Are we talking about the doctor who’s holding particular information that we’ve got? Is it the physio? And so one of the biggest things that I think as a profession we need to think about is how can we work with government to make it easier to collect the information that we need to make our job more efficient and more affordable moving forward. Similar to for example of screaming out about having an ATO portal where we’re able to see certain information, being able to see certain information that will make our job much easier to make it more affordable and more efficient for all Australians. And because at the moment, I can tell you that the biggest holdup in our process is personal protection.

Serena West
Yep. And I would echo that John, and Sarah is going to say these, it is that admin side of things. I’m sure that’s where you’re heading with that.

John Cachia
Yes, sir. I know. Exactly. And it’s like, even on the implementation side, which we’re talking about, like a little bit later in the step, even, like, post the advice. It’s just a matter of things just taking so long, like so long, and it’s holding up things like let’s be honest, you know, when we’re talking about potentially rolling over from one super fund to another, we want to be making sure that the new insurances are accepted except for the standard rates. We’re not going to you know, inferior cover so that it’s holding up potential rollovers which are holding up potential other strategies, and then something that you know, realistically should take maybe four to six weeks sometimes boys out the four to six months, you know, and, and let’s be honest, COVID hasn’t helped. You know, we’re talking around doctors urgency on getting back a doctor’s report.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. All right. Very good. We might, we might wrap this one up. But before we do, I just want I want any quick tips or either carry on the grounds and let’s have some quick tips on what tips would To give two advisors that, you know, around their mindsets moving, moving forward as we go into 2022, their mindset that they should be bringing into their meetings with their clients. Kathy, let’s start with you. What tips would you give to advisors,

Cathy Kayess
I think, get your guidelines sorted, I think go back, you know, reassess exactly how you’re going to treat every single client that comes into your office. Because once you’ve got that set, you then know what you need to ask your client, how they’re going to be treated, and how to explain it to them. If you’re coming into this year with new products, and not having a good understanding of how you’re going to implement that, and how that affects your guidelines, then you’re not going to be able to articulate that to clients. And I think that is probably the My biggest one for this year. Serena,

Serena West
I would echo what Kathy is saying. And I would I would comment that having that very smooth process so that you as the professional, you know, clients are coming to see you for your help. And so you need to be the the calm conductor. And I think a lot of us who have done this for a while we forget what it feels like to step into someone else’s office and be sharing an enormous amount of personal information. So if you can have that as smooth as possible, so that then you actually have lots of reserves in yourself to show up to be excited for the good bits or to work with them when they’re upset, all of those different things. And to know that what you’re doing is actually really, really special. You know, this part of the job is actually really hard. And it’s a very thankless task because people actually no one thinks they’re going to claim and I say to clients, I don’t know which which ones of you I’m going to be seeing again and when, in what way. But you know, what an enormous difference you can make to people’s lives. Yep.

John Cachia
John, biggest one is having confidence that you are the expert in the room. So similar to what Serena saying, I think that clients, especially in an age of technology, where there’s just so much information around, you need to back your knowledge back your experience, back your technical training, build the philosophy that sits behind that, I find that a lot of us are working harder and not smarter. And you’ve probably heard me trickle breadcrumbs through these around technology. Yeah, we need to start embracing technology to continue to provide affordable advice to Australians and deepening the conversation because that’s not going to change knowing our clients and knowing them intricately. So really trying to look at your process and understand where you can deepen the conversation through technology to improve the quality of your advice being delivered.

Fraser Jack
Well fantastic, great, great words of wisdom there. Thank you everyone for joining us in this episode. Jump into the next episode where we start talking about the getting a bit more technical about the the products themselves. This particular one’s been around the advisor mindset really appreciate everybody’s input and we look forward to catching the next episode.