This financial adviser has been told that his business plan is mad. But he’s confident he’ll carve a niche in his ‘unsexy’ specialist area.
Risk specialist, Aaron Zelman, who has set up LifeScope Advice to provide risk-only advice to business owners, executives and professionals, explained to Wealth Professional that he gave up a lucrative employee-based role in order to create something of his own.
“I had acquired equity over a five-year period, and that was financially rewarding, but I didn’t feel that I really expressed myself the way I wanted to,” he said.
“In many respects it’s a desire to create something that has exactly the kind of client experience, look and feel, and almost artistic touch to it, that I want to create,” he added. “In another practice, I really didn’t have license to do that.
“I think it’s like an art that we all are doing in our various occupations, and I think there’s a kind of satisfaction in doing it my way.”
But, artistic visions aside, Zelman has a clear strategic vision for how he wants to run his financial advice practice.
“I’m hoping to provide a very high-touch, less transactional, approach to the way I do business,” he explained. “I think there needs to be a long-term view – or a sustainable view – taken with both clients and the product providers as well. That’s particularly important and I felt a bit constrained on that.”
He added that he was also yearning to take on a more independent framework, and this was reflected in his dealer group choice.
“One of the reasons I joined Synchron is that they’re not institutionally owned. And again, I think that helps me to realise the kind of vision I have.”
Being a risk adviser, Zelman doesn’t currently need to worry about transferring to a fee for service model, but he still believes that the high-touch approach is the way forward.
“I think high touch makes good business sense,” he said. “If you’re not focused on the clients in your business model, you end up disappointing people”.
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