We’ve come to the close of the Professional Development Day series.  The first in person event of the year, of which we hope to have many more.  What struck most was watching all of you reconnect, greeting each other with warmth and a sense of excitement for the year ahead.  In some states, it took a little while to create the energy, I suspect it’s because we’ve become used to interacting over zoom. However, once it was created, the conversations were engaging and insightful.  

As I or Jaime mentioned in the Principals’ briefings, there is a significant program of work rolling out this first half of 2021.  Soon you will be given access to your business dashboards via Xeppo which will provide a significant amount of data and information to help with business performance and compliance monitoring (both at the CAR and Madison level).  As we learn to use these dashboards effectively, we will develop new insights and identify growth opportunities for each practice and adviser.  Megan will continue to provide regular updates on the program rollout.  If you have any additional questions, please contact her, Jaime or Sophie. 

A particular highlight during the PD days was the Active Review session facilitated by Greg and Kerry.  In Brisbane, Stephen King, CFL, Larry Ellis, Investwise and Alan Guilmelli all shared their experiences and spoke about the benefits of our new review program.  My favourite comment was from Stephen King.  Paraphrasing…he said ‘this process didn’t change the way he speaks to a client when providing advice, however the SOA was in a format where the client had a clearer understanding of the plan’. He also shared that whilst he and Greg did not necessarily agree on all points, they could have a conversation about why the opinions differed and ended up with a good balance.  The Active Review program developed by Greg and Kerry is designed to do exactly these things; assist with better client understanding of the advice provided, get in front of any potential issues prior to presenting it to a client and create a shared knowledge of the way you provide advice to your clients.  

As with all things new, we learn by doing and we improve by providing regular feedback.  We expect to hear your views and suggestions for enhancing the program, so please continue to do so.   Active Reviews require our team to be engaged early in the advice process, which often leads to many conversations with each adviser.  To ensure we continue the momentum and success of this program, we have recently appointed Nina Bailey to join the Advice Coaching team.  You can read more about Nina and her experience in this newsletter.   Nina will be based in Brisbane, working alongside Megan.  We will be moving the team into a new office in due course so you’ll be able to visit them in person if you so choose.  

We also officially welcome our Adviser Council. Representatives from each state across our community who will contribute to the strategy and business priorities of Madison as well as share insights and feedback from you.  Please get to know the Council member in your state.  The candour and transparency ethos has become foundational to the success of our community and we want this to continue.

On behalf of the team, thank you to everyone who took the time to join the Principals’ briefing, the master classes and PD day workshops.   It was a pleasure to catch up with you.

Sincerely

Annick

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