A 26 minute watch.  

Alan Smith is CEO of Capital Asset Management, and in the latest of our OctoBlast series, sits down with Lee Robertson to chat about how he’s structured his business from the lessons he’s learned, and why “now is a fantastic time to be a financial adviser”.

The big trend Alan sees emerging in advisory is that of “financial life planning” – a deep dive into the individual, the family, the concerns, and an understanding of how clients see an ideal future panning out.

It’s here around the edges where Alan believes the adviser has a real opportunity to add value, elevating the support given to clients to that of “a critical friend”. This, he believes, can be vital as “many of us are not wired to make sensible financial decisions in the heat of the moment”.

Fee structures are also discussed, which for around the past four years in Capital Asset Management, Alan has done away with ad valorem charging, instead bringing in a flat-fee retainer model.

He adds: “We want to have a clear and transparent, unconflicted fee model”.

A final area he touches on is the training of young people, highlighting that if peers remark “what if you pay for training and they leave”, he replies “what if you don’t pay for it and they stay?”.

Alan also sat in hot-seat and answered our 3 Questions here.