At the heart of Rasiah Private Wealth Management’s client value proposition sits four pillars that support its unique service model. Thabojan Rasiah CFP® talks to Jayson Forrest about how the business is delivering advice a little differently.

‘Advice with a difference’ – it’s a bold statement Rasiah Private Wealth Management makes when pitching its full service offering to clients, but it’s a statement it stands behind with considerable conviction.

“We have a very clear culture within our business when working with clients to make the biggest possible impact in their lives. But in order to do that, we are selective in terms of which clients we take on,” says Thabojan Rasiah CFP^® – Founder and Principal Adviser at Rasiah Private Wealth Management.

In order to achieve that maximum impact with clients, Rasiah Private has designed its client value proposition and service model in a unique way. Called the ‘Client Wealth Journey’, it’s based on the premise that financial planning is never-ending for clients. The Client Wealth Journey is built on four pillars – wealth, tax, investment, and risk – which are the key elements in the various life-stages of a client.

1. Wealth progress: In February each year, Rasiah Private meets with every client. This is an opportunity to clarify and ensure that the business and clients are clear and aligned about the client’s values, objectives, and purpose in life.

“This is an important part of our client value proposition,” says Thabojan. “This pillar is a non-negotiable for us. We insist on having this discussion with all our clients, as it helps us to maximise the impact we can have in their lives. If people don’t want to have these discussions, then we help them find another firm to work with, as it limits our ability to add value.”

As part of this pillar, the business also engages in interactive cashflow modelling. This enables Thabojan and his team to build a picture of the client’s financial life, which helps clients to better understand where they are, what they’re doing, and where they’re heading. “The purpose of the cashflow modelling is to enable clients to answer the question: ‘Am I going to be okay financially?’,” says Thabojan.

Another important component of this pillar is the ability for the business to re-engage with its clients. This allows the firm to explain to clients what they are paying for, while reconfirming the value they are receiving as a client. “This is an important step in re-establishing our client’s relationship with us.”

2. Tax progress: This pillar of the Client Wealth Journey is conducted with every client in May by the firm’s other Senior Planner, Simone Murray CPA, who is also a technical and tax specialist.

“This is an area that adds significant value to clients,” says Thabojan. “We’re proud to have a tax specialist who looks at every client’s tax affairs with the aim of finding opportunities every single year.”

3. Investment progress: Again, every client is engaged with this pillar in August, where a client’s investment portfolio is reviewed and adjustments are made where required.

4. Risk progress: This pillar revolves around estate planning, personal risk insurance, and asset protection, which is discussed each November with every client.

“We meet and engage with our clients separately four times a year according to these four pillars, which each focus on four specific areas that we need to ensure we address for all of our clients,” says Thabojan.

“We believe these four pillars enable us to provide ‘advice with a difference’, because sitting at the heart of these pillars is our client value proposition, which is to help clients achieve everything that’s important to them, with a focus on their values and their purpose.

“At Rasiah Private, we don’t do stock standard reviews, whether it’s annual, bi-annual or quarterly. Instead, the four pillars that we cover off on with clients as part of the Client Wealth Journey at specific times of the year, is our framework to ensure that our clients do what they need to do, in order to get to where they want to.”

Leaning from experience

But to properly understand Thabojan’s unique approach to financial planning, you first need to wind back the clock 20 years.

After gaining early experience in small suburban practices, Thabojan sought out some of the most talented planners in the industry to learn from. He was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Kevin Bailey, founder of The Money Managers, and who is now on the Rasiah Private Advisory Board.

Thabojan was offered equity partnership after a short time at The Money Managers. In 2008, The Money Managers joined with some other boutique practices to form Shadforth Financial Group. Eventually, the success of this business attracted the attention of IOOF, which eventually acquired Shadforth in 2014.

However, according to Thabojan, the experience gained by working with some of the best minds in financial advice, as well as working in a business that transitioned from a successful boutique practice to a larger thriving entity, has been invaluable. It provided him with a sound understanding of how a true professional services firm should function, and was the inspiration behind him going it alone by opening up Rasiah Private Wealth Management in 2017.

“Today, we are a firm owned and controlled by financial planners who are able to put clients first without any interference from institutions or banks. Rather than worrying about short-term profits to external shareholders, we can deliver professional, ethical advice that benefits both clients and the wider community.”

A track record of success

Since entering the financial advice profession over 20 years ago, Thabojan has enjoyed considerable success and notoriety, having being recognised as one of the Top 50 Advisers in Australia by Wealth Professional and the AFR’s Smart Investor Masterclass. He also appears on 3AW and ABC talk-back radio as a finance expert, contributes columns in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, and has also written a monthly finance column for the national senior’s newspaper, 50Plus News.

But despite his achievements, Thabojan believes there is no one measure of success. Instead, he believes success is defined differently for each person and each business. The way in which Rasiah Private measures its success is by determining whether it is delivering the maximum value and impact for its clients, team, and the wider community. And you don’t have to spend too much time with Thabojan to understand just how important his work with clients and the community is.

As an FPA member for over two decades, he learnt early on his career about the importance of being involved in the future direction of the profession.

“As financial planners, part of our role is giving back to the broader community from which we make our livelihoods,” he says. “And a significant part of that is helping out clients and consumers live their best lives, not just though financial advice, but through financial literacy, education, and pro-bono work that many in the profession are actively engaged in.”

When it comes to professional engagement, Thabojan walks the talk. He is currently a member of the FPA’s Policy and Regulations Committee. He concedes the work of the committee is “fairly heavy and not for the faint-hearted”, and acknowledges the tireless work done on the policy front by the FPA’s Ben Marshan CFP^® and Heather McEvoy.

In addition, Thabojan has also previously spent a stint on the FPA’s Professional Designations Committee, as well as working on the Board of Professionalism Committee.

“I’ve never liked the idea of just sitting on the sidelines and letting other people worry about the challenges and problems facing us,” he says. “So, the best way I could make a difference to my profession was by rolling up my sleeves and becoming actively involved with it. Working on an FPA committee isn’t easy, but knowing that I’m contributing to making our profession stronger and more respected is very rewarding.”

A framework of accountability

With the looming threat of recession, continuing market volatility, and rising cost of living pressures, Thabojan is acutely aware that as a financial planner, there is always something to worry about with his clients. Yet, despite market uncertainty, both he and his clients remain very grounded, which he attributes to Rasiah Private’s four pillars framework.

“The reality is, with financial planning, there is always something to worry about. At the moment that’s the risk of recession, geopolitical issues, and the cost of living. What we very deliberately do through using our four pillars approach in delivering the Client Wealth Journey, is to always bring things back to the client’s value and purpose in life. We spend up to 90 minutes with clients in our first paid engagement with them just talking about their values and what they believe in, and really identifying the most important things to them in their life,” he says.

“By focusing and starting with that, and then designing advice around their values and purpose in life, we’re able to deliver advice with a laser focus to help clients achieve their aims and objectives, while helping them to ride our market volatility. We’re able to do this by really knowing our clients, which enables us to deliver a highly personalised advice solution for them.”

Rasiah Private’s approach to the Client Wealth Journey is underpinned by the firm’s ability to contextualise all the things that clients worry about on a day-to-day basis. It does this by bringing the conversation back to how these concerns impact their values and the type of life they want to live.

“This approach provides our clients with a very strong framework and accountability mechanism to make investment changes when they need to, but to also avoid making unnecessary changes that are not aligned to their values and purpose in life. It’s a framework that keeps us and our clients very grounded.”

A new norm

Similar to other business owners, Thabojan acknowledges that the COVID pandemic didn’t come without its challenges for his practice. However, the lessons learnt during the COVID lockdown have helped Rasiah Private emerge as a more nimble and robust business, with a refined client value proposition.

“One of the lessons from COVID was the importance of having a trusted team, where we can provide the flexibility to enable team members to perform at their best, so we can be at our best,” he says. “That has meant embracing remote working, particularly if that means team members are more productive working that way. Technology has been a real enabler for us.”

He believes that by being flexible and accepting new ways of doing business, like video conference calls and digital authorisation, is making Rasiah Private a more adaptive business.

“Many of our clients like the convenience of meeting online, rather than travelling to our Melbourne CBD office. They have the option of meeting with us in person or online, so it really depends on them and their level of comfort, as well as their stage of the relationship with us.”

Thabojan admits to being surprised by the number of clients who are comfortable meeting online, and who still prefer to meet this way post-COVID.

“Clients are now very familiar with using technology and interacting online, and they realise just how convenient and effective it is to engage with us this way. They’re more comfortable using technology, which is just one of the new norms of working in a post-COVID world.”

Business planning

At a time of the year when advice businesses are well advanced in planning ahead for the next 12 months and beyond, Thabojan admits that as a young advice practice of five years, Rasiah Private has changed a lot over that time. This means the way it now approaches its business planning has also changed.

“At Rasiah Private, we do business plans every six months. This gives us an opportunity to look at our culture and purpose, as well as our mission and vision,” he says. “We workshop that with external consultants, as well as have offsite team planning days. This is particularly important to ensure the whole team knows where we’re going as a business and have buy-in with that. It’s all part of future-proofing our practice.”

Thabojan adds that Rasiah Private has always invested heavily into the business to ensure it’s got the capacity to sustain the type of growth it’s been enjoying.

“So, our business planning has always been very proactive,” he says. “It’s not just quantitative planning around the financials but it’s also qualitative in terms of our team and clients, which is important with how we set ourselves up to ensure we can continue to deliver the maximum value and impact in the lives of our clients.”

Look to the opportunities

When looking ahead to the next 5-10 years, Thabojan prefers to take a ‘glass half full’ outlook, believing there are more opportunities for the profession than challenges.

“Regardless of any profession, there will always be challenges,” he says. “So, planners need to be prepared for change. We need to be ready to adapt and pivot, as regulations, technology, and client expectations evolve. Change is certain, so if we’re not prepared to adapt, that’s where the profession can get stuck.”

However, Thabojan is enthused by the “incredible opportunities” for financial planners, as the advice industry gradually transitions to become a true profession.

“As financial planners, we’re very fortunate in our role of being able to beneficially impact and transform the lives of our clients, and the wider community. And the biggest opportunity we have is to do that incredibly well,” he says. “So, we need to avoid the risk of running advice businesses that are superficial and focused on pushing product or growing revenue at the expense of clients.

“Instead, as a profession, we can have a massive impact in the lives of people by focusing on their values and purpose in life. For me, that has always been my motivation as a financial planner and which has driven me for over 20 years in my career. There are just so many people who need the help of a financial planner, and this demand is only growing, which is a huge opportunity for the profession that cannot be underestimated.

“If we constantly challenge ourselves to deliver the most value we can for our clients – and there are so many ways in which we can do that – then clients will pay for that. Focusing on value delivery will enable you to run a highly successful and profitable business. It’s our approach at Rasiah Private, and it works!”