The licensee harnessing word-of-mouth referrals
With Finchley & Kent coming in second place for adviser growth in 2024, its managing director shares why word-of-mouth referrals are critical to its success.
Wealth Data’s recent calendar year wrap-up highlighted the licensee owners that led organic adviser growth in 2024. Namely, Sydney-based Finchley & Kent came in second position with a growth of 37 advisers for the year, behind Centrepoint Alliance at 39 and ahead of PictureWealth at 33.
In conversation with Money Management, Finchley & Kent managing director Sam El Shammaa attributed the company’s adviser growth since its establishment in 2020 to its strong referral network.
“We’re in a growth stage – we have been growing quite rapidly, but I do want to emphasise that we haven’t been growing just for the sake of growing. We’ve been very meticulous on the type of advisers that we have been taking on and they really have to fit a certain criteria,” he explained.
Crucially, while other licensees are growing their numbers via inorganic M&A activity, 90 per cent of its adviser appointments have been referred by word of mouth, El Shammaa said, through other advisers or practices in the industry.
“We predominantly work off word of mouth. Very rarely do we onboard an adviser that just calls us out of the blue. It’s all by other people in the industry or other advisers with other dealer groups that refer their colleagues or their friends to us also because they like what we do.”
The managing director added: “[Our referral network] is really strong because when someone refers someone to you in whatever field, whether it’s a doctor or your accountant or your plumber, the person referring is also putting their reputation on the line too.
“They’re not going to refer you to somewhere that they think is not the right fit for you or not providing the right service. That gives the adviser a bit of comfort when they’re coming to talk to us.”
Finchley & Kent currently has 37 practices operating under its Australian financial services licence (AFSL), all with one to three advisers each. The number of practices it supports could reach 40 by mid-year, El Shammaa said.
However, the firm remains committed to purely organic, word-of-mouth growth in the mid-tier space and is happy to remain a leader at this level rather than compete with larger players, he explained.
“You’ve got the larger guys out there, the Count’s, Lifespan’s, WT Financial Group, Entireti. Those guys are out there and they’re large. We’re not out there to compete against them. That’s not our market – we’re mid-tier.
“We are very happy in the boutique area. If we expand, I think our cap will probably be about 60–70 advisers, or 60–70 practices, and that’s where we’ll stay. With the infrastructure we have, we can service our advisers quite well.”
As the managing director of Finchley & Kent, El Shammaa said he also prioritises the personal relationships he has formed with each of its advisers, which can become harder to maintain beyond the boutique and mid-tier size.
He continued: “I don’t want to lose that personal touch with the advisers, that’s really important to me. I don’t want to be one of those guys where there’s an adviser and I don’t know who they are or what their history is or who their kids are and all that kind of stuff.
“I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be able to have a relationship with all my advisers and I think you lose that if you grow too big, too quick.”
AUTHOR
Jasmine Siljic
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