Despite ‘adviser exodus’ commentary, now is a good time to start a financial advice practice because with shrinking numbers, there are more referral partners looking for an adviser, says the founder of a new practice.
As part of the New Practice Profile series, Money Management spoke with Angelo Baronessa, founder of Divergent Wealth, who opened his Melbourne-based practice after a deep career think.
“I kind of came to a crossroads and I thought after a decade in the industry, ‘Is this the industry that I want to remain in, is this what I want to keep doing for now and the rest of my life?’” he said.
“I even spoke to a careers counsellor to get a bit of guidance around that and the conclusion was, look, I love what I do and I love seeing the changes and the impacts that I make to people’s lives.
“It’s not for the monetary reward, it’s for the reward of knowing that you’re helping people that was what it came down to.”
Baronessa said he decided to open his practice after realising there was not a place that aligned with his values.
“So it was a matter of, well if there’s nothing else out there that I could fit within, I’m better off creating it myself.”
Baronessa chose to differentiate a section of his offering by capitalising on the intergenerational transfer of wealth that was expected over the next few decades through targeting those with superannuation balances lower than $100,000 and those under 30.
By investing in Advice Intelligence software for this section of clients, which he said offers a lot of automation and client interaction, Baronessa said he can free up his time to provide client-centric superannuation advice that could be charged at lower fee.
“The idea is that I grow with the client.
“So it’s a matter of not charging a percentage based to eliminate any ethical issues. It’s a dollar base fee.
“So that intention is, ‘you’re young, you’re wanting to save up a deposit for a house’, by me not charging you a percentage fee, means that if I’m telling you to put money into your super to extract $50,000 out of that, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to line up my pockets quicker and faster.
“That means that we grow to a point where they’re now able to afford fully fledged financial advice and it’s no longer scaled, and we work with them to continue on their next cycle or the next journey of their of their life.
“And there’s other referral partners out there that don’t have an adviser they can refer to so now is probably the best time to be doing it,” he said.
Click here to read our previous New Practice Profile with Vivify Sustainable Wealth.
