Estate Planning is always Step One when meeting a new client

Justin Ayres, Director and Senior Financial Planner – Swinbourne Wealth and Protection

When I lived in Sydney, I was working with an Estate Planning specialist while Iprovided the financial planning advice, what I learnt then about Estate Planninghelped cement the direction I would take in my own financial planning business.In 2012 I set up Swinbourne Wealth and Protection on the Gold Coast continuing thepractice of leading my financial advice with Estate Planning. In fact, I have turnedclients away who don’t want to think Estate Planning first which demonstrates thelevel of priority I place on this.

Estate Planning is simply a win-win for my clients, and for my business.For my clients it means by firstly setting their affairs in order, and by meunderstanding their needs everything we do for them after that in terms of financialplanning supports their estate plan.

I truly can say that my best clients are those that I went through the estate planningprocess first. Our relationship is stronger which means the financial work movingforward is more robust which is good for them, and good for the business. I also getto better understand my client’s family situation which can lead to me assisting othermembers of the family, often encouraging them to consider their estate planningneeds sooner rather than later.

Everyone these days is time poor, and I was finding that relying on estate planningspecialists was becoming more difficult. I also never really found the same level ofconnection that I did with the estate planning specialist I worked with in Sydney.Which is why finding the online estate planning platform Yodal was the perfectsolution for me as it meant I could work through the entire estate planning steps withmy clients.

Yodal is a terrific resource because it covers across all aspects of estate planning, isflexible and easy to use. The team and I have a thorough understanding of Yodaland how it can benefit my clients, and I have comfort that the team can assist theclients if data needs to be updated or checked. By using Yodal we can take the clientalong their estate planning journey, they are fully involved right from the start andhave confidence in what we are doing for them.

My belief in the importance of starting with an estate plan has become somethingthat sets me apart from my competitors – it is my ‘point of difference’.These days, with the help of Yodal I am writing 1-2 estate plans a week which isbusiness that was previously walking out the door. More importantly, I have grownother areas of my business because my client relations are more robust having beenbuilt on a back-bone of care and trust.

I am aware that there is a new update for Yodal coming, and I am looking forward tothis, as I am confident that this will enhance what I am doing now, providing anotherwin-win for my clients and for my business.