Staff Reporter
A WHILE ago I wrote about the huge benefits I received from attending a regular weekly business networking event – here I was able to meet like-minded business owners and entrepreneurs who, like me are advocates of this activity, in order to meet potential clients or more importantly ‘connectors’ to potential new clients.
It’s the old networkers adage of not who’s in the room but who do they know, and you would like to meet that isn’t in the room. During these weekly conversations over the year we have become to know, like and trust each other.
Obviously in the current situation the ‘room’ has been replaced by the ‘screen‘ which has enabled so many of us to continue with our networking meetings, albeit in a virtual environment. I guess one advantage is not having to endure someone sitting next to you with halitosis!
When I was previously working in the UK, my best ‘connectors’ were those professionals in associated professions, also in the main dealing with client’s money, such as accountants or solicitors.
While the lawyer was more likely involved in a ‘distress’ purchase by their clients (divorce, death or dispute), the accountant would be in more regular contact – at least annually with their clients, in order to prepare the annual accounts or personal tax return.
Or they might be involved in changing a business structure in order to reduce the tax liability of the owner.
Not only did it help to have an experienced, highly qualified financial planner to help with their clients financial problems, but it was also very beneficial to my own clients to have access to a trusted legal or taxation expert.
It’s basically a team approach to client’s money, and where necessary could involve other professionals being drafted in for more complex matters.
In research undertaken by the Chartered Insurance Institute in 2012, the most important factor when assessing a financial adviser to recommend to their clients, for both solicitors and accountants is that they hold a recognised professional qualification such as Chartered Financial Planner.
In fact 625 of Accountants and 68% of Solicitors regarded Chartered status as important when evaluating a new financial adviser to work with.
Since I arrived in Spain just over 12 months ago, I have been dedicated to building a team, partnering with others to leverage the power of this key differentiator, and to optimise our clients financial success.
As with any partnership, good communication is key.
Touching base with clients regularly on an ongoing basis is the only way to ensure that they are getting the whole picture – after all we all want the same results – a great financial outcome over the course of their and their loved one’s lives.
You’ve been hired because your client can’t see the wood for the trees, and you can.
With the team approach no financial stone will be left unturned, and they can be assured that you’re working together to achieve the same agreed upon goals.
In the course of my collaboration with these other professionals, it would sometimes be necessary to give an appropriate presentation at one of their client events – or they at mine, whether it be a legislative change in taxation or more commonly an annual budget synopsis.
These proved very useful and informative for clients and was a great way to ‘join the dots’ between the related but very different worlds of law, taxation and finance.
It is even more important as we prepare to emerge from lockdown over the next few weeks that we stay informed, and perhaps make adjustments to our business or life plan going forward.
With this in mind I would like to announce that – in conjunction with BTB Club I have decided to offer a free webinar in conjunction with a lawyer, tax adviser, private banker and social entrepreneur, who will each give a short presentation with the theme of ‘Resilience’ running through each, and then a live Q&A session afterwards.
The webinar is on Thursday May 7 at 18.30 and will last approximately 30-45 minutes with questions.
To reserve your place, or if you have any queries, in the first instance please email me at [email protected].
