MLC launches adviser mentorship program
Financial planners recognise that the world is changing and that the kind of support traditionally offered by dealer groups will not see them through, according to MLC general manager of business development Peter Greenaway (pictured).
MLC has just launched a financial planner mentorship program as part of its practice start-up package, which includes the MLC Advice Business School, access to a practice development manager and a book of clients. He said all of this was geared towards helping competent financial advisers learn how to set up their business, manage cash flow and develop branding.
The mentorship service was launched following feedback from advisers that revealed they wanted to learn more from experienced advisers who also ran successful businesses.
“We’d like to see the mentors being able to pass on the specific nuts and bolts of what made them successful, and equally perhaps the mistakes they made along the way and helping the new business owner avoid them,” said Greenaway.
He agreed that the demand for this type of service was an indication of a changing world.
‘The kind of support that dealerships traditionally gave businesses in the past is not going to see them into the next decade,” he said, adding that in the past the focus was on educating advisers about products.
“The next decade is going to be all about the consumer and about how to provide outstanding advice to people in a way that they can appreciate that what they are purchasing is actually advice.
“I think it’s fair to say that a number of the dealer groups that exist in the marketplace have gotten by on a handshake and a share of the volume bonus that they’ve been receiving.”
Greenaway said that if volume bonuses disappeared, dealer groups were going to have to provide some other value, incentive or reason for people to be associated with them.
“And that’s really going to come down to goods and services,” he added.
The new mentorship program will be launched in Victoria in February and then rolled out to other states.
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