Talking about the staple characteristic of the adviser community recently, it was noticeable how many times the word ‘resilience’ was mentioned.
This in itself tells a story because if it is one of the fundamental requirements of working in our industry, then you can begin to understand what advisers been faced particularly over the past 15 years – certainly since the Credit Crunch hit.
The need for ‘resilience’ is unchanging, however. Right now, the sector is confronting a series of challenges that many advisers – and clients – may never have faced before, not least a rising rate environment into which existing clients are likely to be paying more each month for their mortgage finance.
Not only do you need resilience, but you need empathy, patience, trust, grit, determination and potentially a degree in psychology in order to get the client through to a completion which they do not feel has been one long exercise in extracting more money from them.
In a sense this is just the tip of the advisory firm iceberg, because underneath not only comes all of the challenges of business, the economy, securing opportunities, resource, handling staff, etc, but also the regulatory burden that – perhaps understandably – continues to grow with each passing year.
For example, for all the talk of ‘Consumer Duty’ being a common-sense, positive consumer outcome approach to business – which it is and many smaller to medium-sized firms will say they already deliver on this – it requires a significant amount of work, preparation and ongoing delivery.
That begins with next month’s implementation plan deadline, which you will need to have ready and available to show the FCA, which has to be a robust document detailing the gaps you have identified, how you intend to meet them, and how you are going to embed the Consumer Duty right throughout your firm and its culture, both in the short-term and well into the future.
If you think that looks slightly daunting, then I can well understand why.
Which is why today’s adviser/firm requires one further characteristic and ability – that is to recognise where support is needed, and to partner with those who can best deliver what is required.
Now, that might be compliance support as cited above, or it might be finding an outlet into a sector in which you are not a specialist in order to secure the right consumer outcomes. Matching being an entrepreneur with delivering for clients.
The Consumer Duty, and the need for protection advice, dovetail nicely together in that regard, and it’s why we are seeing a growing interest in providing protection advice to clients, particularly from firms who ordinarily and historically have not offered this service provision. Consumer Duty, and the need for positive outcomes, puts this into a much sharper context.
Collaboration must therefore be at the heart of what working in the mortgage industry is now all about.
No firm is an island, after all, and even if it is simply working via a distributor business to ensure every piece of business you place secures the maximum amount of income and value, then this is a collaboration worth pursuing and one that is going to begin providing benefits right away.
The point here is not just about surrounding yourself with good people in the business but surrounding yourself with quality operators and businesses outside it.
Tap into the rich array of resources and support that is available from distributors like us, but also across the rich expanse of our sector, be that via tech companies, sourcing systems, trade associations, and everyone else.
You still have to be resilient in this marketplace, of course you do, but your resilience doesn’t have to be built up on your own. Far from it. Utilise everything at your disposal, in areas like training, CPD, marketing, fraud prevention, to encase your business in a fortified shell that strengthens you further for whatever might be coming round the corner.
If history has taught us anything, we can always expect the unexpected in this market.
Bob Hunt is chief executive of Paradigm Mortgage Services
