During a financial services career spanning more than 30 years, Angela Martyn CFP® has seen many changes in the industry and experienced a whole range of models for running a financial planning practice and delivering quality advice. She shares her insights on how she and her team at Personal Financial Services have developed their successful business strategy and approach to client engagement.

By the time Angela Martyn CFP^® founded Personal Financial Services (PFS) in 2001, she already had over a decade of exposure to different business and client engagement models in financial planning. In order to deliver on the aims of her new financial advice practice, she established the firm under its own AFSL. While the business is very successful and sets high standards in the profession, keeping it small has also been important to achieve the founding goals of the business.

“We started out with a relationship-focused business as one of our three goals for the practice,” says Angela. “This goal is founded on our shared commitment to enjoying personal interactions resulting from professional relationships and our belief that good financial advice comes from people not companies.”

The other two goals for the practice are to provide genuinely independent advice and follow a fee for service model. While this may sound simple, Angela and her two fellow financial planners, have developed a strong framework that supports evolution of the practice as it continues to find new ways to meet clients’ needs and respond to the changing regulatory environment. Two key elements of this framework are their Client Advisory Board and engagement with members of the Boutique Financial Planning Principals Association (BFP), of which Angela is currently President.

“Advice and guidance from both these groups has been very valuable in helping PFS continuously improve our advice offer to each client,” says Angela. “Our Client Advisory Board, when established in 2009, met twice a year and now meets on an ad hoc basis to share feedback on new service streams, our operations and delivery of advice and review reports. The BFP are a community of practice principals from smaller self-licenced businesses, like ours. Being part of this group has been a great opportunity to seek guidance, ask questions, challenge ideas and viewpoints and learn from others. These are all essential for making sure our advice process and offer continues to meet our professional and business goals.”

A focus on core services and team work

From the outset, PFS have focussed on putting strategies first for clients, with portfolio or investment advice often just one part of implementing strategic outcomes. Not only does this provide greater value to clients, it also brings satisfaction and strength to the PFS advice team of three – Angela and her fellow financial planners, Shane Griffin CFP^® and Paul Martyn.

“Our relationship focus means we jointly manage all clients, and this team approach ensures everyone benefits from our complementary skills,” says Angela. “We all enjoy assisting clients to put their plan into action and we also recognise the value of teamwork. You cannot do it all by yourself if you want the best outcome for clients.”

With their independent and strategic approach to delivering advice, Angela and PFS do not offer any internal products and don’t use fixed portfolio models as they work with each client’s existing investments to create bespoke portfolios. They also partner with trusted providers when it comes to services that are often required to execute a client’s strategy.

“We outsource aspects such as mortgage brokering and estate planning as we see these as being outside our core remit,” says Angela. “We aim to be big enough to provide all the necessary financial services and small enough to do it on an individual person-to-person basis.”

Know your client profile

Not only has this business model shaped a practice that’s successful and profitable, it has also allowed Angela, Paul and Shane to develop enduring and rewarding relationships with their PFS clients.

“Our clients are wealthy but busy and wanting to take control of their financial situation,” says Angela. “They’re looking to our team for the expertise needed to develop a strategy and implement their financial plan. Many clients are approaching retirement or are retired and need ongoing technical and investment advice or they may be seeking guidance on legislative changes that could impact their existing strategy or create new opportunities for them.”

“These types of clients generally tend to be receptive and responsive to advice and committed to a personalised, professional long-term relationship,” she adds. “The complexity of each client situation provides the opportunity for us to work on strategies we find interesting and fulfilling. These types of clients also fit the competencies of our team and match our client collaboration and relationship aims.”

Lessons from a successful practice

In addition to learning the value of team work and support from like-minded practice owners, Angela’s experience has also taught her the importance of being both discerning and confident as a leader and business owner. “My experience as a practice leader with a range of different advice models enabled me to cherry pick the best ideas and develop the business we have today,” she says. “I’ve also learnt the value in being confident about what you offer and who best fits your business. This is important to ensure positive outcomes for every client you take on.”

Angela Martyn CFP^® will be presenting the FPA Professional Practice Workshop with Jason Andriessen as part of the FPA Professionals Congress event in April 2022. Register for the event via the FPA events portal.