Peter Richards: a passion for education

FOR most financial planning professionals, there might seem to be a world of difference between the process of financial planning and engineering.

But for Peter Richards, highly commended in this year’sMoney ManagementFinancial Planner of the Year award, there are many similarities between the two industries.

“What we were trained to do in our engineering degree was find the optimum solutions for our clients’ needs — which is exactly what I am doing now,” Richards says.

It was while completing this degree that Richards’ passion for the world of finance began. He started trading shares in his spare time.

It was in 1990 that he switched careers altogether, starting up as a sole trader with a proper authority fromFinancial Wisdom. Five years later, he merged his business with PKF Financial Services and is now a partner in the firm.

Though Richards has come a long way, starting out was tough.

“The main focus was on finding the next client. Anybody I spoke to was a potential client,” he says.

But Richards soon found that the secret to sourcing clients was to get other professionals, such as accountants, refer work to him.

“The number one rule is to ensure the client comes first in every single situation, and then be able to clearly and consistently communicate what you do to potential and existing referral sources,” he says.

With no formal qualifications, Richards undertook a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from theSecurities Institutein 1994, following up with a Diploma of Financial Planning (DFP) to eventually achieve Certified Financial Planner (CFP) status.

The 1995 merger with accounting firm PKF brought new challenges. Richards was charged with establishing and developing the financial planning arm of the business through generating more referrals.

“I loved it. It was a massive challenge to educate the PKF accounting partners about what financial planning actually was,” he says.

Since joining PKF, the financial planning arm has become a fully fledged division within the firm, with funds under management (FUM) growing from $30 million to $230 million, staff from one to nine and revenue from $150,000 to $1.4 million.

“When you look back and you think you have achieved that amount, and the time seems to have just flown, you do feel really satisfied,” he says.

Richards intends to continue building the financial planning arm of the business, aiming toward $500 million FUM within the next five years.

But his real passion these days is educating people about financial planning.

He scorns the recent coining of the phrases ‘lifestyle’ and ‘holistic’ planning, which he says only describe what financial planning should be and, in fact, has been for some time.

However, he does believe that helping the Australian community to understand that financial planning is about achieving life goals rather than just investing will improve both the perception and practice of the industry.

And he puts his money where his mouth is.

Over a period of seven years, Richards has clocked up over 300 hours with the Securities Institute, lecturing in areas of financial planning to groups including clients, accountants, financial planning dealer groups and the public.

Though he revels in his teaching activities, Richards also finds time to get involved in the community outside of financial planning.

He is a volunteer with his local community fire unit, which sees him lowering bushfire risk and preparing houses for approaching bushfires by wetting them down.

Perhaps even more risky than playing with fire, Richards also raises money for the Fred Hollows Foundation through a “Dare to Bare” sponsored skinny-dip. He was the third highest fund raiser for the foundation in 2001.