You’ve all heard us say at Alman Partners to ‘Start with the End in Mind’ when building your personal financial plans and to then ‘focus on what’s in your control,’ ‘shut out the noise’ & ‘take a long-term approach’ for making smart choices, so it’s important that we are walking the talk!
One of our ‘end in mind’ plans centres on our business succession. We aim to build a multi-generational business centred around internal succession. In other words, we are not for sale. What does this mean to our clients? Well, you can have absolute confidence that you have partnered with a sustainable business that has plans to not only help our current client community continue to experience ‘True Wealth’ in their lifetime but that this experience becomes the platform for future generations of family to experience the same! To build the platform to achieve this goal you will have observed our success in attracting and growing an amazing team and introducing new, young vibrant partners over the years and we will continue to do so into the future.
Another of our ‘focus on what’s in your control’ plans is associated with providing our clients with a world-class experience in everything we do. To this end I recently traveled to Stockholm, joining 27 members of the Global Association of Independent Advisers (GAIA), representing 19 wealth management firms, from 9 countries across the globe. All GAIA firms are leaders in their local markets, so it will not come as a surprise that the self-driven agenda is relevant and powerful, with a proactive view to the future!
With extraordinary technological change sweeping across the world, we explored what the future holds in terms of client expectations, demographic change, wealth transfer, technology, and human resourcing. With the recognition that the world is becoming more complex and with the rise of AI, we explored our ability to leverage new technology and maintain data security/privacy to continue to exceed client expectations around our value proposition into the future. We challenged ourselves on how we can coach, lead, and inspire our clients to live their best lives while building a sustainable and nurturing culture in service of our teams.
We have a wonderful team culture at Alman Partners and it was a highlight to receive our culture survey benchmark results and utilise the conference to lean on experts and other member firms’ experiences to explore areas for incremental improvement. Employee development planning (IQ + EQ), career pathing and visible leadership were clear themes for being an employer of choice and while we have the foundations for each of these areas rolled out at Alman Partners, we have taken away actions to enhance our unity & operating effectiveness to deliver exceptional service.
All GAIA member firms have a science-based investment approach, so there is always an academic & research-oriented segment to the conferences. It is important that we have global reach to understand what is happening concerning academic developments around the world and that we engage experts who cut through the noise. Nobel Prize-worthy research doesn’t show up every year or even every decade, but it is our job (Alman Partners Investment Committee) to stay abreast of developments as they present and interrogate if the theory can be applied in practice to have a positive impact on portfolio expected return and certainty. A highlight for me from Stockholm was the work done by Professor Paolo Sodini and his team on formularising the inclusion of ‘Human Capital’ as an asset in the assessment of leveraging portfolios. If that excites you, then let’s catch up for a coffee….. otherwise, just know that we are always turning stones in the world of academia.
We are so fortunate to have a network of world-class firms and industry leaders (GAIA) to share ideas, reinforce best practices, and lean on at any time. These relationships are akin to the relationships that we have with our client community, built on trust, expertise, and genuine care and our mission to lead, educate, and inspire a future that resembles ‘True Wealth’ for you!
Gerd Kommer of Gerd Kommer Invest GmbH, Munich & Paul Shepherd.
I am currently Chair of the Australasian arm of the Global Association of Independent Advisers (GAIA) and I have just been re-elected to sit on the Executive Committee of GAIA (Global) for a second term, so if you want to know more about GAIA and the role it plays for Alman Partners and securing your Family Wealth across generations, please reach out for a coffee or ask your adviser when you’re in the office next.
An important ingredient for an intergenerational business is growth. We want to help more of the people that you care about experience ‘True Wealth.’ If there is someone that you know that you would love to experience the value that ‘you’ have received from working with Alman Partners, please make an introduction with the confidence that we will ensure that we add value, regardless of where they’re at or what they decide to do.
Paul Shepherd (CFP® Professional, BEng, DipMgt, DFS[FP], AIF®) is a representative of Alman Partners Pty Ltd, Australian Financial Services Licence No: 222107.