Lifestyle planning tool launched to advisers

Lifestyle planning firm Life by Design has rolled out a series of tool kits to advisers providing them with a process for offering lifestyle advice and the ability to incorporate offering such advice alongside the traditional planning process.

The New Generation Advisor do-it-yourself implementation tool kits were released this week to an number of non-aligned planning practices throughout New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and New Zealand.

According to Life by Design founder Ian Hutchinson resistance to lifestyle planning has been encountered to date due to a lack of understanding of how to incorporate lifestyle into the traditional planning process.

“It's a different approach and some advisers will need to re-focus to deliver the benefits of lifestyle that clients are now seeking,” Hutchinson says.

Hutchinson adds, while many financial planners talk about lifestyle planning, few actually do any meaningful planning on their client's lifestyle aspirations and plans.

Therefore the release of the tool kits had been delayed due to adviser apathy and the belief the tools were little more than client needs analysis questions, however Hutchinson has now launched the offering in the belief they can fundamentally reshape the advisory business into becoming more client centric.

Hutchinson says the progressive practices of the future will offer lifestyle planning as a foundation service.

“Traditional financial planning as we know it, will become a support service to this core client benefit, along with other technical services like tax planning, accounting, estate planning and retirement advice,” he says.