The Effective Adviser

When you sell your financial planning business, what happensto the name, reputation and goodwill you've spent years building? In episode four of The Exit Edit: What's the T? Gaynor Rigby and Victoria Hicks discuss the dispute surrounding the Skerritts name and what it could mean for business owners considering an exit. From sale agreements and restrictive covenants to retaining key people...

Money Marketing, AI, work-life balance and consolidation. There is plenty on the table in episode three of The Exit Edit: What’s the T? Gaynor Rigby is joined by Victoria Hicks and Ben Wright to talk through some of the news and conversations catching their attention across financial planning. They also get into consolidation and what it can mean for clients, advisers and sellers. Are bigger firms...

What does data tell a buyer about the quality of your firm? In this digital event, Nick Eatock, founder and CEO of intelliflo, joins Ben and Melo Progress Partner Nicky Wright, to explore the role data plays in an acquisition. They look at how acquirers assess data quality, what due diligence typically asks for, how firms can use iO more deliberately before a sale, and what happens to data during...

How will AI change financial planning, and what should firms be doing now? In this Melo Exit Session, Melo and Obsidian explore how technology and AI could reshape financial planning over the next five to ten years, and what that means for firms today. The conversation covers where technology can create capacity, what firms need to understand about data security, how AI may affect advisers and cli...

In this Melo Exit Session, Ben Wright is joined by Victoria Hicks from Melo and Becca Timmins from When We Think to explore the people side of succession. They discuss founder dependency, identity, successor confidence, family dynamics and how the relationship changes as someone moves from trainee to leadership peer. They also look at how to start honest conversations, give feedback without knocki...

Episode 2: Succession, AI & the changing value of financial advice What does succession readiness really look like across the profession, and what happens to the value of advice as AI becomes more visible to clients? In episode two of The Exit Edit: What’s the T? , ⁠⁠⁠Gaynor Rigby⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Victoria Hicks⁠⁠⁠ start with the Succession Alliance survey and what it could tell us about how prepared...

Episode 1: Hoxton, Titan & the AI wake-up call Gaynor Rigby , Victoria Hicks and Ben Wright sit down for the first Exit Edit: What’s the T? to talk about what’s catching their attention across the financial planning profession. This week: Hoxton, Titan Wealth, the pace of AI, changing client expectations and what advisers may need to offer as technology takes on more of the traditional plannin...

Most financial planning firm owners did not set out to become the bottleneck in their own business. Far fewer understand what is really holding their growth back or why some firms scale smoothly while others quietly stall. This free, practical session gives you an honest look at the internal blockers that prevent real growth. Not just strategy. The mindset, the habits, and the structures underneat...

Every exit has 3 stages... 1. Preparing 2. The deal process 3. The transition Most IFA firm owners know an exit will happen one day. Far fewer have had the opportunity to step back and understand what actually makes an exit successful and why some deals feel controlled and strategic while others quietly unravel.  In this joint session with CATS, we walked through the full exit journey, from early...

Strong organisations aren't built on control. They arebuilt on capable, confident leadership teams. As a senior leader, your role is not to hold every answer. It is to create an environment where answers emerge without friction. A truly self-reliant leadership team does not remove you fromdecisions. It strengthens their quality and pace. Self-reliance isn't a personality trait. It’s a deli...

Succession planning is often treated as something to think about later, closer to exit. In reality, it is one of the most important leadership challenges a financial planning firm will face. This practical digital event explores how firms can move beyond dependency on founders and senior advisers, build leadership capability internally and create continuity for clients, teams and future owners. Dr...

Most business leaders start the year with clear goals and good intentions. Then momentum drops. Habits slip. Difficult conversations get avoided. And before long, it’s business as usual. In this recorded live session, we tackle two problems that quietly limit performance and value in growing businesses:1. Why motivation fades and change doesn’t stickDr Stephen Ford, Exit Partner at Melo, explores...

In this episode of Melo's Growing or Going Podcast, we unpack one of the most common and complex decisions firm owners face. Joined by Melo CEO Victoria Hicks, COO Gaynor Rigby, Ben Wright explores how adviser structure impacts growth, operations, culture and exit value.   This conversation covers: Why adviser structure matters more than many firms realise Autonomy vs alignment in self-employe...

This is a recording from the Sheffield Life & Pensions Society Annual Conference, where Melo CEO Vicki Hicks, took the stage to talk about The Efficiency Flywheel – how to strip out friction, boost capacity and build a business that runs smoother every quarter. These are some of the practical actions we've learned from working with hundreds of financial planning firms. By audience request,...

Thinking about selling your financial planning business but have historic Defined Benefit (DB) transfer cases in the past? You're not alone. DB history is one of the biggest unknowns for firm owners planning an exit, and it can impact valuation, deal structure, PI, premiums and how buyers approach due diligence. In this webinar recording, Ben Wright from Melo hosts a practical, no-nonsense con...

How do you bring AI into your advice firm the right way? Not by bolting it onto broken processes, but by rethinking how your business could run using the latest technology. In this live conversation, Melo's Chief Innovation Officer, Ben Wright, sits down with Tom Hind of Saturn AI and Head of Progress at Melo, Kath Harvey, to explore how AI is reshaping financial planning. You’ll learn:💡 Wher...

Consumer Duty has raised the bar (and the cost) of running financial planning businesses. In this practical session, and with the help of 8AM Global, we unpack advisory vs discretionary models, demystify co-manufacturing/insourcing, and show how to reduce burden without losing control of your proposition. Who it’s for: financial planning firms using advisory or discretionary model portfolios, and...

Hey everyone - it's been a while, but we're back with the new show name of Growing or Going. Every financial planning firm is unique, but most face similar challenges. In this live, unscripted Q&A session, we tackled real questions from owners and leadership teams, getting to the root cause, sharing fixes that work and giving ideas you can apply in your financial planning firm. Here’s...

What to know how AI works? Want to catch a glimpse into the future of the technology financial advice firms will use? Want to hear first hand what advice Defaqto CEO John Milliken would give to his 10 year old self? Good news - you're in the right place! John has worked in and around AI for years and knows more than you're average Joe. He's also incredibly good at explaining it simply...

This episode is guaranteed to blow your mind! Ben talks to founder of the 311 institute and Fanatical Futurist, Matthew Griffin about everything that going to happen, and what will happen after that. Matthew works with NASA, leaders of G7 and G20 countries, banks, technology providers and even Disney! Our conversation covers; · Is the future as bad as people think? 2.08 · Are we backsliding to pre...

In this episode Ben Wright interviews industry titan and CEO of Dynamic Planner, Ben Goss. We talk about Ben's early days, his successes and failures in business, what's next for Dynamic Planner and his secret love of compost management, only on The Effective Adviser! Special thanks to today's sponsor, Owen James Events! If you've not been to an Owen James event, you really should....

Ever wondered what makes a great event? If you’re anything like me, you can come away from an event thinking about it was a waste of time attending, or alternatively, you can come away wanting to tell everyone about it. Turns out there are several parts that make an event memorable and in this episode, I get the secret recipe from James Goad, Founder or Owen James Events. If you’re not been to an...

Financial advice is becoming a service only available to the most privileged people. Consumer Duty and increased regulatory reporting make it commercially impossible for financial advisers to provide traditional advice to most of the UK population - the advice gap. In this episode, Ben talks to Bill Bottomley and Andy Wealthall of Lifetime, a financial advice firm who have made a very profitable b...

Money is a bit of a taboo subject. In fact, for us Brits, it’s just not the done thing to talk about it. But why is that and what problems does it cause? In this Talk Money Week special episode, Ben talks to Jenny Wright, Money & Pensions Service Regional Manager for Yorkshire and Humber about the issues that over 20% of the UK are experiencing and why it’s important to #TalkMoney. In the worl...

Recruiting and retaining talent can be incredibly difficult at any time, however, the current shortage of candidates is making the situation even harder. In this episode, Ben talks to James Walker of BWD-Search, a recruitment firm specialising in financial services. In this episode we cover:     - How James built BWD and his mistakes that others can learn from     - Why Covid has changed how we hi...