Financial advice is becoming a service only available to the most privileged people. Consumer Duty and increased regulatory reporting make it commercially impossible for financial advisers to provide traditional advice to most of the UK population - the advice gap. In this episode, Ben talks to Bill Bottomley and Andy Wealthall of Lifetime, a financial advice firm who have made a very profitable business looking after clients other firms turn away. They do things a little differently though!   We cover: ·    Why Lifetime set their sights on the mass market ·    Making financial advice a “team sport” ·    The role of the non-qualified financial coach ·    The vital role of technology (including AI avatars) in their business ·    How to deliver financial advice for £149! If you want to find out more about lifetime, you can do so on their website (www.lifetime-fm.com. If you’re thinking about stopping service to some of your lower value clients, get in touch with Andy (https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-wealthall-0b71a435/) to see how Lifetime could help. A huge thank you to Owen James for sponsoring the podcast! There are some great Red Folder events coming up and it’s never too early to book onto 2024’s Meeting of Minds events. You can see all events on their website https://www.owenjamesevents.com/listing/events.

Money is a bit of a taboo subject. In fact, for us Brits, it’s just not the done thing to talk about it. But why is that and what problems does it cause? In this Talk Money Week special episode, Ben talks to Jenny Wright, Money & Pensions Service Regional Manager for Yorkshire and Humber about the issues that over 20% of the UK are experiencing and why it’s important to #TalkMoney. In the world of financial advice, we tend to only deal with people who have money and with this special, we wanted to give those in our profession a peek into issues that we don’t normally see and what you can do to help those less fortunate. In this episode we talk about: - What talk money week is   - Who the Money & Pensions Service & Money Helper are - Why we struggle to #TalkMoney       - How things have got so bad in relation to financial resilience - How loan sharks are targeting people through their children - The danger of listening to “Dave down the pub” - Financial wellbeing and mental health - Why employers could be the key to widespread financial wellbeing - How the financial advice community can help - Jenny’s journey from Financial Adviser to MaPS And as always, we finish with our quick-fire questions. Every November the Money & Pensions Service (also known as Money Helper) run Talk Money Week. This year it’s on 6th – 12th November and during the week everyone is encouraged to #TalkMoney. This week’s theme is “do one thing” with regard to your finances. If you know someone who needs support with their money, direct them to Money Helper here https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en You can report illegal money lending here https://www.stoploansharks.co.uk/ If you’d like to partner with the Money & Pension Service (MaPS) you can find more details here https://maps.org.uk/en And finally if you'd like to give something back, the PFS run a Education Champions initiative to educate kids about money. You can find out more here https://www.thepfs.org/about-us/initiatives/my-personal-finance-skills/education-champions/ A huge thank you to Owen James Events for sponsoring this special episode! There are some amazing Owen James events coming up which you can review and register to attend on their website, including the upcoming Meeting of Minds Wealth Management and Private Banking ⁠https://owenjamesevents.com⁠. You’ll probably see Ben there! We hope you enjoy the episode!

Recruiting and retaining talent can be incredibly difficult at any time, however, the current shortage of candidates is making the situation even harder. In this episode, Ben talks to James Walker of BWD-Search, a recruitment firm specialising in financial services. In this episode we cover:     - How James built BWD and his mistakes that others can learn from     - Why Covid has changed how we hire - Flexible working is now an expectation and how employees have more power than ever before - How to attract talent and retain them - How to give you the best chance of getting the role as a candidate And as always, we finish with our quick-fire questions. If you have a job, want a job, employ people or need to, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss! You can get in touch with BWD Search via their website https://www.bwd-search.co.uk/ or contact James directly https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-walker-4484413/ Thank you to Owen James Events for sponsoring this episode. There are some amazing events coming up which you can review and register to attend on their website, including the upcoming Meeting of Minds Wealth Management and Private Banking https://owenjamesevents.com. You’ll probably see Ben there! We hope you enjoy the episode!

In this episode, Ben Wright talks to Adam Geddes of Paul Geddes Wealth Management about the sudden death of his father, Paul. The loss of a loved one can be hard at any time, but if that loved one is also your boss, mentor, and the principal of your firm it makes things even harder. Throw in the start of the pandemic and you’ve got a perfect storm. Adam shares his experiences of dealing with the death of his dad and how he found the drive to continue and make Paul Geddes Wealth Management the successful business it is today. This episode contains some graphic descriptions of death which some listeners may find distressing. Huge thanks to TOMD, our sponsor for this episode. TOMD are the preferred marketing partner of hundreds of financial services firms looking to change the way they promote their business. From the upcoming Autumn Statement to end of tax year planning, from Pension Awareness Week to festive greetings, they can provide effective and relevant content tailored to your audience. Change up your marketing with TOMD. Visit www.tomd.co.uk/change to find out more. If you need to create change in your business, but don’t know how. Get in touch at https://changesquared.com.   We hope you enjoy the show!

In this episode, Ben Wright discusses important things to consider and the potential pitfalls of moving national, network or service provider with Paul Day of Network Consulting. Network Consulting are an independent firm helping advisers and advice firms find the best network or support provider for them. There has been a lot of change in the national and network space recently, so it seemed the perfect time to share my conversation with Paul with you all. As you’ll hear in this episode, making a move isn’t easy so we cover what you need to know to make an informed decision. Whether a move is something you’re considering, or it’s being forced upon you, this episode will definitely give you some food for thought. If you need some support finding the right new home for your business, you can get in touch with Paul via https://www.network-consulting.co.uk/ or through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulgday/. For all of our latest ideas or to get in touch you with us, go to https://changesquared.com. We hope you enjoy the show!

In this episode, Ben Wright talks to Stephen Baxter, Founder and now Managing Director or Robertson Baxter, an IFA firm based in Huddersfield (not Wakefield as we said in the intro - sorry Robertson Baxter!) Steve has successfully made the transition from financial adviser to business owner; something which many advisers talk about but most struggle to do. Steve shares his story “warts and all” as we discuss everything from handing over clients, losing and then re-finding purpose and dealing with Imposter Syndrome. You may have noticed this episode is much longer than normal. After reviewing the audio from our interview, we really couldn’t work out which bits to cut, so for the first time you’ve got the entire conversation! What do you think of this format? Let us know in the comments or by emailing hello@changesquared.com. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe as we’ve got some more awesome content coming up over the next few months. Here are some key moments in the show, which should be available to select on your podcast player (hopefully!) 3:10 How Steve became a financial adviser 8:50 Going self-employed 12:00 Taking on the first adviser 20:25 Introducing the new adviserwhilst stepping back 30:12 The decision to step backfrom giving advice 35:53 Time to think 40:51 Bringing clients into yourinner circle 43:36 Adding value without proving advice 56:40 A typical day for a Managing Director 1:04:00 Becoming an business owner v’s selling up 1:09:15 The benefits of having a coach or mentor 1:14:05 Dealing with Imposter Syndrome 1:21:20 Quick fire round Get in touch with Change Squared here: https://www.changesquared.com/ You can find our more about 9 Dots Coaching here: https://ninedotscoaching.co.uk/ This is Robertson Baxter’s website: https://robertsonbaxter.com/ You can find out more about VouchedFor here: https://accounts.vouchedfor.co.uk/register Use code Wright1 for your first month free!

This episode has been a while in the making but it's finally here! I've talked about Conquest Planning several times on the podcast and today I'm finally joined by Rob Tedder, Conquest's UK Account Manager. In this episode: We take a closer look at how Conquest works Discuss the benefits of using AI as a toolAddressing some of the concerns people (especially compliance departments) may have with an AI assistant providing recommendationsTalk about the future of AI in financial planning If you want to find out more about Conquest Planning (and I strongly recommend you do), you can find them here: - https://conquestplanning.com/en-gb/home. This is Rob's LinkedIn profile if you would like a chat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtedder/ And if you want to learn how to use technology to improve your business, get in touch with us via ⁠⁠www.changesquared.com⁠⁠. We hope you enjoy the show!

We’re back, and for Change Squared’s 1 year anniversary, we’ve got a special treat for you! In this episode, I interview AI powered language model and internet sensation, ChatGPT. We talk about what ChatGPT is, what it can do, how it can make financial advisers more effective and its predictions for the future. As ChatGPT has access to pretty much all information from human history, I also take the opportunity at the end of the show to ask it what is the greatest lessons humans can learn and how humans can be happy. You might be surprised at the answer it gives! I’ve shortened some of ChatGPT’s answers (editors’ prerogative) but the answers ChatGPT gives in the show are all its own. After listening to this podcast, you’ll understand what all the fuss is about! If you want to talk about how to use AI tools like ChatGPT to improve your business, get in touch via ⁠www.changesquared.com⁠. If you’ve not seen ChatGPT yet, you can find it here -https://chat.openai.com/chat. To give ChatGPT a voice, I used the free text to speech tool from TextMagic which you can find here https://freetools.textmagic.com/text-to-speech. We also talk about AI being used in Conquest Planning software, which you can find here - https://conquestplanning.com/en-gb/home. We hope you enjoy the show!

In this episode I caught up with Jane Hodges, founder of MoneyHoney, a completely online financial advice business. Jane shares how she can effectively work from anywhere in the world, why an office is an outdated concept, the benefits to customers a dealing with a digital business and the coolest place she's ever given advice from. Any adviser who wants to be in business 5 years from now will need to embrace technology. If after listening to this episode, you want a bit of help with your digital strategy, get in touch via www.changesquared.com. You can find out more about conquest planning here : https://www.conquestplanning.com/en-ca/home Please take a second to mention the show if you do speak to them.

In this episode, I share my experience of attending the Empowering Advice Through Technology (#EATT2023) conference, talk through some of the most disruptive technology on display and chat with FTRC founder and conference host, Ian McKenna, on some of the developments that will very rapidly change the financial advice industry forever! Here's the link to our previous episode on confirmation bias: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ZHRtu7zhV7X8rRziEEUQm  To find out more about the technology presently available, you can visit Ian's website - visit www.advisersoftware.com. Shout out to IntergenData (https://intergendata.com/), VouchedFor  - 1 month free by using code WRIGHT1 (https://professionals.vouchedfor.co.uk/elevation ) Conquest Planning (https://www.conquestplanning.com/en-ca/home ) and Origo (https://origo.com/) If you're not sure how to future-proof your business, we'd love to help. You can book a call via our website www.changesquared.com. And don't forget to subscribe - we'll be dropping discount codes for EATT2024 in the next few weeks!

Hello and welcome to The Effective Adviser podcast from Change Squared. In this episode we look at how the principles of using a self checkout in the financial advice process could lower your costs of factfinding by 99%. You can find the link to the M&G report "Family Wealth Unlocked" here: https://tinyurl.com/mrxcydvw. If you find this podcast interesting, please subscribe to ensure you get all the latest episodes as soon as they're released. If you'd like to have a chat about your business and how we can help you become an Effective Adviser, get in touch either by completing the contact form on our website (www.changesquared.com), or emailing hello@changesquared.com.

Welcome to The Effective Adviser podcast. With Christmas only a few days away, we wanted to give you a quick festive message and a sneak preview of what's to come in 2023. Thank you for all your support. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! To find out more about Change Squared, visit www.changesquared.com

Welcome to The Effective Adviser podcast! In this episode we explore Confirmation Bias and how it can adversely impact your decisions without you knowing. We also cover how to identify Confirmation Bias, provide some examples of how biases could be affecting your business and give some tools and techniques to overcome your own biases and make more rational decisions. For more information on Confirmation Bias and a to access myriad of other resources to help you become The Effective Adviser, visit our website www.changesquared.com

Hello and welcome to The Effective Adviser podcast!  In this quick intro, we'll let you know what to expect from the show. Subscribe now to ensure you get every new episode as soon as it's released. Ben