Training

We deliver specialist courses in financial planning and financial strategy throughout the Asia region. We also offer a specialist course leading to the professional designation of Certified Financial Coach.

We designed and delivered training courses on financial planning for private bankers in the Asia region. The course covered issues such as cross jurisdictional financial planning and estate planning for high net worth people. It was designed to equip relationship managers with the background knowledge to discuss financial planning issues with customers.

Apart from our specialist financial planning and financial strategy courses, we train financial advisers to change their relationship with clients from a product sales based (transactional) relationship to a financial strategy, advice based relationship. This shift from a sales relationship to an advice relationship places the financial adviser in a position where they can influence the distribution of a client"s financial resources. This is a valuable and sustainable relationship that leads to an increase in business written per client.

Consulting

We provide consulting advice to a wide range of businesses. We have specialist knowledge of the financial services industry. Our advice covers the following areas:

* Strategic positioning of businesses
* Corporate Governance
* Business planning and growth strategies
* Systems and processes
* Acquisitions and mergers
* Distribution of financial advice
* Financial planning
* Compliance
* Expert witness for law firms in matters relating to financial planning

Adj. Prof. McMaster also presents as a keynote speaker at conferences and conventions on issues affecting financial planning and business management. Our clients are financial institutions, financial planning businesses and accounting businesses. We have also advised professional associations in Australia and overseas. Here are examples of the services that we typically deliver to our client groups.

Business Strategy

* Strategy, design and establishment of new distribution businesses.
* Strategic review of existing distribution businesses. We focus on supervision, reduction of compliance liability and consistency of advice.
* We provide systems to manage and measure the activity of a national network of financial planning businesses.
* Advice on support services for distribution businesses.
* Review, training and support on practice management within financial planning businesses.
* Presentations at conferences and professional development sessions. These presentations generally focus on business issues.

Re-Positioning Businesses

We undertake a review of businesses covering;

• Organisational structure
• Client base
• Pricing
• Service levels
• Processes
• Systems
• People
• Financials
• Marketing
• Communication

The review makes recommendations for change and documents an implementation path and the expected impact. The Strategic Plan is the blueprint for taking the business towards an efficient model. We create a model of the business and project this forward over five years. Once you have a model of your business, you can use it to look at the effect different strategies such as pricing, acquisition, or market change will have on your business. The model will show you the future effect on cash flow, profitability, capital value and staffing needs. In this way you can make decisions about your business from an informed position where you know the expected outcome.
Using workflow software we can define and automate each process used in your business. This increases efficiency, reduces risk of error, reduces compliance liability and provides a consistent client experience. Here are some typical processes that you can document.

• Client acquisition
• Initial Advice
• Plan preparation
• Implementation
• Portfolio review
• Client review
• Administrative processes

One of the benefits of automating your workflow processes is that we can measure the time that it takes to complete each task and the number of times that each task is completed by each employee. This allows us to automatically produce Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports for each employee or team tailored to your business. Another by-product of your model and automating workflow processes is that you can produce management reports that measure key elements of your business versus targets.

Specialist Financial Planners

We advise wealthy families on financial strategy. We design unique financial strategies for each family and we review these regularly. We act as the personal Chief Financial Officer for family groups. In designing financial strategy, we include the following issues.

• Cross jurisdictional tax planning
• Cross jurisdictional estate planning
• Investment strategy
• Risk management
• Debt management
• Cash flow management

Our clients typically have income and assets in different countries and benefit from retaining us as external professionals who look objectively at their use of assets, liabilities, income and cash flow.

We work on a fee retainer and we don"t accept any commissions. Consequently we have no conflict of interest in our advice and we stand to act solely in the best interests of our clients.