The Intermediary –- May 2026 - Flipbook - Page 91
B RO K E R B U S I N E S S
Opinion
Look beyond
the client
P
roviding the best
advice oen involves
looking beyond the
client themselves. For
example, you might
be working with a
sole borrower, but they may have
dependants who are relying on them
financially. Without some form of
protection in place, those dependants
may find themselves in an incredibly
difficult situation.
Or you might have a client who
is looking to invest in property. The
long-term plan may be to help set their
children up for the future, but do they
also have other, more straightforward
options in place too, like a Junior ISA?
Inheritance Tax (IHT), too, is
becoming a more common subject of
conversation, against the backdrop
of receipts reaching record highs yet
again, with clients minded to act now
with one eye on the implications for
their loved ones down the line.
The truth is that it’s only by geing
to know the client and their full
circumstances – including their
immediate family – that advisers
can build a picture of what their
priorities are, what they are looking to
achieve, and how best the adviser can
support them.
It can be all too easy to view
the work of advisers as purely
transactional. We are there to help our
clients secure the mortgage they need
to purchase a home, for example, to
establish the income protection plan
they want or set up the pension.
But I’ve always felt that’s a simplistic
impression of the actual job. Really,
it all comes down to the relationships
we build. If these maers were purely
transactional, the client could opt to
go to any adviser when the need arises.
But we see clients go back, time aer
time, to the same adviser because of
the relationship established, because
they trust that specific adviser to
provide the nuanced, individual
guidance required.
Networks can
AHMED BAWA
is CEO at Rosemount
Financial Solutions (IFA)
act as useful vessels
for establishing
those relationships,
connecting advisers with
like-minded businesses
to ensure clients enjoy
the fullest service”
You don’t build that relationship
when the dialogue only covers the
client sat in front of you. It must
encompass everyone, and everything
that maers to the client.
Branching out
Of course, it may become apparent
from those conversations that the
client wants help with a product
area which is out of the norm for
you. Many brokers don’t tend to
handle pensions or investments for
example. Others are less comfortable
with the sales process involved with
products which are complementary to
mortgages, like protection.
That doesn’t have to be an issue, so
long as the broker has a plan of action
for how to support the client. We see
many brokers building strong referral
relationships with peers working
in other areas of financial advice,
relationships built on confidence that
the client will still receive the same
high levels of service with a partner.
Networks can act as useful vessels
for establishing those relationships,
connecting advisers with like-minded
businesses to ensure clients enjoy the
fullest service.
There will also be referral
relationships set up by the network
itself. We recently partnered with
Beanstalk, a provider of Junior ISAs,
precisely because it had become clear
that clients wanted support in seing
up savings for their children, but this
wasn’t always something with which
advisers had much experience.
Good networks do more than just
introduce referral partners, though.
The best networks deliver bespoke
training and support so that advisers
can build their skillsets in areas they
are less familiar with, or which don’t
come naturally.
It’s something we’ve worked
on extensively with protection at
Rosemount, establishing peer training
and even helping advisers shadow
peers so they can see how to improve
their own sales levels.
Looking beyond
The job of advisers has become allencompassing in recent years. Clients
are increasingly looking for help
across their various financial needs,
rather than one specific product.
Couple that with the apparent
direction of travel from the regulator,
and it’s clear that advisers need to have
an answer for everything their clients
may raise with them.
Delivering the highest level of
advice will mean considering more
than just the client alone though;
their loved ones will inevitably feature
in the client’s priorities, and will
subsequently influence the product
recommendations.
For advisers, the task is to establish
the right support structure and
partnerships to ensure they can do
just that. ●
May 2026 | The Intermediary
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