You Heard This in 2022. It’s 2025. What’s Changed?

The last 5 years have been momentous. It’s hard to believe the pandemic years feel like a distant memory when it was all so consuming at the time.

What have we seen since then?

1. Total validation of the financial planning model – during the pandemic
2. Major shifts in consumer behaviour (acceptance of online)
3. Continued increases in adviser costs
4. A (very) brief loosening, then tightening of the employment market
5. Continued activity in the ‘sale-of-businesses’ space

Three and a half years ago, in January 2022, on a webinar, I asked the question – what’s going to drive our profession?

There were five themes that I felt were important back then. Let me re-visit those themes now because many of them are still important and haven’t been addressed by some firms.

On Wednesday, 20th August at 11:00 am, I’m running my next free webinar for PFS Power called Five Themes That Are Still Critical In 2025. You can register here. In it, I’ll explore how these five themes are still vital for financial planning firms to get right and how you can make better choices for your business.

🚀 1. Sale and Succession

Everyone is flirting with the idea of selling. Advisers are bombarded with calls or emails from brokers.

Here are some things to consider:

• All owners say they want their clients cared for post-sale…but still sell to consolidators or vertically integrated businesses. (Ask yourself: Is that how you want to go out?)
• Inevitably, that means moving clients to in-house investment options (that are more expensive)
• Well-run financial planning firms are very profitable (25% net profit, after the owners get paid a full market rate for their day job). These firms don’t need to vertically integrate to make great profits for their owners.
• Average or poor quality firms can only be made profitable by…hard work OR a vertical integration strategy
• Bad deals never make it into the public domain… because everyone who sells their business signs an NDA.
• Crazy prices offered are just clickbait. Be very careful.

Let me say this in black and white: Regardless of whether you are focused on growth, sale or succession, the issues for your business are identical. Not similar, but identical.

One of my clients was recently told by a broker, ‘If you’re thinking of selling, don’t hire anyone or spend any money. It’s all about EBITDA.’

This is poor advice. A sale can still fall over at the last second, and getting you to take your eye off the ball is actually a strategy buyers use to put you in a position where “getting back on the horse” and taking your business forward just feels like it’s too hard.

Whatever you do, don’t stop making the right decisions for the growth of your business.

When you understand these issues, the conversation shifts to creating more valuable firms.

It’s fine to sell your business. But surely you want to “sell well” to the right kind of buyer who is going to continue the great level of service you’ve provided to your clients your whole life. Generating growth in your business makes it more valuable when you are ready to sell.

If you are looking at internal succession as an alternative – there’s work in it.

If you are looking to sell well – there’s work in it.

And if you just want to grow for now – there’s work in that too.

There are no free lunches, I’m afraid.

📲 2. Zoom/Teams Meetings

Here’s what I said three and a half years ago:

• Many existing clients are opting to remain on Zoom/Teams meetings – (circa 50% anecdotally)
• Firms with a strong niche can (and do) attract clients from all over the UK (and abroad) – meeting over Zoom/Teams
• No need to meet suppliers face to face – do it on Zoom/Teams and save a ton of time
• You can access the best training and coaching support – from anywhere in the world
• There is a place for face-to-face (conferences, meetings etc) – but the hurdle just got higher (the content needs to be compelling)

When clients already know you well (as your existing clients do), they are often open to a video meeting for their annual review because it’s quicker. There’s no travel time and the meeting is more focused.

There’s an opportunity to ask some clients that you still see face-to-face if they are open to a video meeting instead. Every client that says ‘yes’ is saving you time. If they don’t want to do that and they prefer to come to your office, that’s still ok – the client gets to decide. But you might be surprised how many actually prefer a video meeting.

And just to be clear, you can secure brand new clients over a video meeting. It’s a skills issue. (I’ll cover more on that in my PFS Power webinar on the 20th August)

🏢 3. Working From Home vs Return To Office

Three and a half years ago I said this issue was very important:

• For retaining existing staff
• For recruiting new staff
• For your future office space requirements

It’s still true. Yet some business owners continue to struggle with this.

Here’s a great article from Harvard Business Review that dives straight into this issue if you’re interested – The Workplace Psychological Contract Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It – by Anne-Laure Fayard and John Weeks

Your WFH strategy needs to be role and person-specific:

• For your Superstar employee – the issue is “What do THEY want?” and I’d do whatever it took to make it work for them. Your best people can work on Mars for all I care. They’ll still be 3x more valuable than an average person who is working in your office
• For your Superstar potential recruit – Same deal. “What do THEY want?”
• For your Good (but not great) performer – I think you’ve got more leverage here, so the question is “What do YOU want?”. But you’ve also got to ask yourself the question, do I want average performers in my business at all? Over time, I’d be trying to upgrade with every new hire.

👥 4. Your Team

Understand this – You can’t build a great business or a great lifestyle without the right team in place.

I hear that you don’t like managing people.

I hear that you can’t recruit effectively.

You’re just going to have to find a way, because you’re going nowhere without a great team. They can be outsourced, in-house or a mix of both, but you have to build an effective team around you.

As soon as you might be able to afford it, hire a Practice Manager and they can deal with all of this stuff for you. That could happen as early as £400,000 of annual revenue.

When you get the team right, then you can go at 100 mph. If you don’t get the team right, it’s like trying to sprint with a truck tyre tied around your waist.

💰 5. Pricing

I don’t care how you charge, but you have to get your level of pricing right.

Why is pricing so important?

For Revenue Generation: Getting pricing right directly drives income – it’s the lever that multiplies the value of every client relationship.

For Competitiveness: Smart pricing positions you in the market, helping you attract the right clients without racing to the bottom.

For Perception of Value: Price signals quality – if you undercharge, clients may make assumptions about how good you are that are incorrect.

For Profitability: Stronger pricing improves profitability, which gives you the cash you need to pay good people well, and to constantly reinvest in your business as it grows.

🎯 Conclusion:

I raised these issues a long time ago, and yet I still see them rearing their heads with some firms to this day.

Hopefully, I’ve got you thinking about whether any of them are still issues for you to address in your business.

Let me know how you go.

On Wednesday, 20th August at 11:00 am, I’m running my next free webinar for PFS Power called Five Themes That Are Still Critical In 2025. You can register here. In it, I’ll explore how these five themes are still vital for financial planning firms to get right and how you can make better choices for your business.

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