Protect your revenue post Covid-19

In my experience, most Advisors and Accountants just can't say no to clients. They are often the "go-to" person in times of need and 2020 has certainly been a "time of need" for the vast majority.

I have spoken with 100's of Advisors and Accountants over the past few months and the common theme has been on how to best assist clients with both Jobseeker and Jobkeeper payments. It is wonderful that we can assist when that guidance is needed.

However, I also then asked the question, what have you been doing for your "A Class Clients" and in most cases, the response is that Advisors or Accountants are just too busy assisting clients with the Government stimulus measures and Centrelink (DHS) issues.

For many of these Firms, I believe that this is creating a risk to their business longer term.

I recently assisted a couple of Sydney based firms address this issue by looking at strategies that they could discuss and hopefully implement for these clients. These were very simple strategies but reinforced to that particular client segment that their Advisor still cared about them and that they had not been forgotten.

We looked at in-specie transfers of shares into the clients SMSF to manage capital gains tax and to have any future growth in the market within the tax concessional Superannuation environment.

We also looked at commencing pensions for other clients where applicable and how any market recovery (albeit longer term) would still fall within the clients transfer balance cap.

These simple strategies and discussions with clients went a long way in cementing the relationship the advisor had. In most businesses, this group of clients are essential to the ongoing success of that business.