Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) is a crucial part of the advice process but can be a time-consuming process and the consequence of not meeting this obligation can be drastic.

VBP does various recurring tasks for clients and one of them is generating Fee Disclosure Statements. One of our financial planning assistants (FPA), Gelo, does this task for his client.

“I was trained to do Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) tasks by one of our firm’s planners via online meeting. The Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) is part of the Annual Progress Report that we send out to clients. The Progress Report is generated through XPlan with the complete details on the Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) including the fees paid in the last 12 months which we generate from the AMP Portal and then a thorough explanation on the Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) and who receives the fees.” Gelo said. They schedule this  task every 15^th of the month.

Another FPA, Ann, does this recurring task for her client. She follows her own check list when creating and sending out Fee Disclosure Statements.

She does this task every month and uses Worksorted to automatically generate the document.

To this date, VBP provides support for this administrative task to over 20 clients/firms (each firm having multiple planners). Depending on their planners’ needs, our financial planning assistants generate Fee Disclosure Statements either daily, weekly, monthly or just when client reviews are due. They also either do it by bulk or individually per client review.

To generate FDS, our FPAs use different tools depending on what their practice uses. Some tools used include Worksorted, XPlan, PractiFI, COIN, AMP Portal and different adviser fund provider portals.

Most of our FPAs are trained by their respective clients in performing FDS tasks. But we can also provide training from our support team whenever needed. Check lists vary for each firm, some may not have any, but we always encourage our FPAs to have their own check list to ensure accuracy in fulfilling tasks.

If you are currently not getting us to help support you in FDS, you may want to consider this as an option.
If you are interested to add Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) generation to the administrative tasks you want to outsource, contact your assigned Client Service Manager (CSM) now to arrange a discussion.

During client meetings, it is important that financial planners are able to capture all necessary details to help them understand the client’s position. However, usually, some details are left out when planners jot down notes. They may also miss out on the client’s tone, body language and other signals that may be relevant when they focus more on writing down instead of actually listening. One way to make sure they do not miss anything in the client engagement meeting is to create a file note.

A file note is an important document that help financial planners with data gathering and documentation. It is also used to record important details in client meetings. File notes can then be transcribed by Financial Planning Assistants to be used later on for evaluation and analysis during the advice process.

Below is a 2-part video series to help you get up and running doing audio file notes. In this video, we will cover the best software to use and basic principles for effective notes.

As a result of the recent FOFA reforms and requirements of Fee Disclosure Statements and Best Interest Duty, advisers are reporting that the compliance requirement to provide ongoing advice to clients is far more : oncurious, at a time when pricing of advice is under pressure.According to Bstw Industry benchmark report, even prior to the new legislative requirements taking effect in July 2013, the average financial planning firm was only experience annual sales growth 7.8% 1. Average net profit was 23.2%, (which is low due to the higher cost of wages and on costs).

• The average wages as a % of Sales = 41.6%.
• In contrast, the top 20% of firms surveyed have a net profit greater than 30% and a lower wages cost as a % of sales,being able to get more productivity from their employment expenses.

When you include the Total Employment Costs (TEC) (i.e. super, workers comp., payroll tax, cost of seat, benefits etc.), we estimate that the average financial planning firm is allocating more than 60% of their revenue to employee relating costs. In recent time we have seen this figure increase as firms have to absorb the growing costs of providing advice, as it has been difficult to pass this costs on to clients.

The key metrics that an Advice Firm therefore should measure and be focused on are:

• Revenue per TEC (Total Employment Cost) and
• Profit as a % of TEC

¹ _{Source: Bstar Industry benchmark report for the period Sept. 2010 to Sept 2013 for financial planning firms with a turnover range of $1m – 2.5m}