Why I’ve Been Nominated for the Financial Standard Power 50

You’ve probably scrolled past a few of them this week. An adviser you follow, camera on, asking politely whether you’d mind clicking a link and voting for them. Out of context it looks a little odd, and if you don’t work in financial services you’d be forgiven for wondering what on earth is going on.

So here’s the explanation, and I should declare my interest up front. I’m one of the people asking.

What the Financial Standard Power 50 actually is

The Financial Standard Power 50 is a list of the 50 most influential advisers in the country. That’s the whole thing.

There’s no prize money. There’s no trophy that sits on a shelf. Nobody gets a pay rise. It’s recognition, and recognition is useful in one specific way. It helps the message get out a bit further than it otherwise would.

For advisers who spend a lot of time making content, that’s the appeal. Not the ranking itself, but the extra reach that comes with it.

I’ve been nominated, and it surprised me

I’ve been nominated this year, which I genuinely didn’t expect. I’ve only been doing this content thing for 10 to 12 months.

Before that I was doing what most advisers do. Seeing clients, writing strategies, running the practice, and assuming that people who needed advice would eventually find their way to an office. Some of them do. Plenty of them don’t, or they find their way there years later than they should have.

So I started filming. Short videos, on a phone, answering the questions clients actually ask me across the table. What happens to my super if I stop work at 60? Is it too late to start thinking about retirement at 54? Can I set up an SMSF to buy a factory?

A year in, that work has been noticed enough for someone to put my name forward. That’s the surprising part.

Why visibility matters for a small firm

Advice Loop is a self-licensed practice in Mornington. We’re not a bank, we’re not a dealer group with a national ad budget, and we don’t have a marketing department. What we have is the ability to answer questions clearly and publish the answers.

That only works if people see them.

Most people meet a financial adviser after the decision has already been made. After the house has settled. After the redundancy has been accepted. After the super has been sitting in a default option for a decade while they meant to look at it. By that point some of the good options have quietly closed.

Anything that puts plain information in front of people earlier is worth doing. That’s the entire reason I care about a list of names on a website.

A bit of self plugging never goes astray

I’ll be honest about the other half of it too. There’s a marketing benefit for the business, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

A little bit of self promotion has never gone astray, as long as you’re upfront that that’s what it is. Advisers asking for votes are asking for a leg up with their profile. That’s fine. It’s just better said out loud than dressed up as something nobler.

How to vote, if you’re that way inclined

It takes about a minute by following this link:

https://www.financialstandard.com.au/fspower50

Once you’re on the page you scroll down through the list. It’s organised alphabetically by first name, which trips people up, so don’t go hunting under D for Dean. Head to L instead. Click my name, cast your vote, and you’re finished.

While you’re there, have a look at the other names. There are some very good advisers on that list, people whose work I read and learn from. If their content has helped you, vote for them as well. Sharing is caring.

What none of this is

Everything I publish, including this, is general information. It doesn’t account for your income, your debts, your family, your health, your timeframe or anything else that actually determines what you should do.

A video can tell you how a rule works. It can’t tell you whether that rule helps you. Those are two very different things, and the gap between them is where most financial mistakes live.

I’d rather say that plainly than bury it at the bottom in small print.

When general content stops being enough

There’s a point where reading and watching stops being useful and starts being a way of putting off a decision. You’ll usually know when you’ve hit it.

It tends to look like this. You’re within about ten years of stopping work and you can’t say with any confidence whether you’ll have enough. You run a business and most of your wealth is tied up in it, with super treated as an afterthought. Or you’ve got two or three reasonable options in front of you and no way of knowing which one suits your situation.

That’s when personal advice earns its keep, because it starts with your numbers rather than a general principle.

At Advice Loop the way in is a Financial Health Check. It’s a paid appointment, one hour, $495. We unpack where you are now and what you actually want your money to do, and afterwards you get a tailored roadmap in a Financial Gap Report.

If you’ve got questions before you book anything, ring the office on 03 5976 8426 or send an email. Ask whatever you need to ask first.

The bottom line

The Financial Standard Power 50 is a list of the 50 most influential advisers in the country, voting is open, and I’ve been nominated for the first time after 10 to 12 months of putting content out.

If any of that content has been useful to you, the link is in the first comment or in my bio, and the list runs alphabetically by first name. Scroll to L.

And if you vote, drop me a comment so I can thank you properly. While you’re there, tell me what you want me to cover next. I’ll keep making them either way.