There’s a lot of ‘bad stuff’ associated with the pandemic. The latest indications suggest we’re looking at months rather than weeks in lockdown, and then continued social distancing measures.
One of the gripes within the financial advice profession is the absence of government financial support. Those advisers who work from home don’t qualify for the small business rates relief grant scheme – no £10,000 cash grant for them. Advisers running limited companies, remunerated mainly through dividends, have no 80 per cent of self-employed earnings coming their way. And the suggestion we ‘furlough’ ourselves for three months is fine in practice, but unlikely to sit well with clients and their continued servicing needs.
Falling investment markets mean, in many cases, lower recurring revenues this year. For firms with already razor-thin margins, and in the absence of the ability to write much new business, 2020 could be incredibly lean. This year may even see a spike in business sales and consolidator activity.
40% of advice firms forced to furlough staff
Opportunities ahead
But it’s not all doom and gloom. The next few months offer all advisers an unprecedented opportunity to achieve several things.
First, it’s time to review. Use this new-found time to consider your purpose in business, how you work with clients, and how you communicate your values to the wider world. As a profession, we’re not excellent at presenting ourselves to an audience beyond our existing clients. That’s why, when the FCA carried out its Financial Lives survey in 2018, it discovered that only 39 per cent of consumers trusted financial firms to be honest and transparent in their dealings with them.
We can boost these numbers in the months ahead by sharing genuinely useful content, designed to answer those burning questions we know consumers have about their budgets, insurance policies, investments and pensions.
Online CPD
The second task for the lockdown is to consume. As advisers, we’re pretty good at keeping our CPD up to date by attending product and fund provider events. Gone now are the prawn sandwich and Powerpoint presentation lunches, so instead the onus is on us to identify the most valuable learning materials as we continue to grow professionally.
I’ve already started using this time to consume more podcasts, audiobooks and video courses. While not directly related to financial advice, the content I’m consuming is all intentional, to build relevant skills and absorbing knowledge I’ll need at a later date.
Listen to our daily podcast series on how Covid-19 will impact the world of financial planning
Third, this is an incredible opportunity to create. Advisers should launch a podcast, create a YouTube channel or even write a book during this time. As our ideal clients are trapped at home, and once the initial shock of the crisis has settled a little, consumption of written, audio and video content will go through the roof.
We can view the coronavirus crisis as a bad thing, or we can identify the opportunities for coming out the other side in better shape than ever.
Martin Bamford is a chartered financial planner at Informed Choice
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