S7E7 Ethics of Age Pension Advice
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
As a financial adviser, you no doubt know some stuff about the Age Pension. The Income Test. The Assets Test. Thresholds, limits, reduction factors - a fair bit of stuff. But how do you tackle some of the ethical considerations? How do you balance client best interests with client intentions - especially when some of those intentions can be a bit dicey? In this week's episode, we explore this fundamental part of retirement advice and try to add some new details and nuance to your approach. And, for keen listeners, let us know your answer to the $10,000 question - where has this...
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S7E6 Episode 100: POWER!
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
100 episodes! 100 episodes of these two goons meandering around topics that affect, interest and bewilder financial advisers in Australia. To celebrate this milestone, Nathan and Jordan have decided to meander around the topic of 'power' in financial advice. Who has it, who doesn't, why they do (and don't), how they can exercise it and how we can increase it. It is, like most of our oddly popular ones, very philosophical, very meandering and filled with outdated pop culture references (they fly together, just so you know). Enjoy the pod and here's to an undetermined...
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S7E5 We (Kinda) Read RG181
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
We genuinely had a plan for this episode...and then it just ran right off the rails. Which is a shame*. Because ASIC have updated their regulatory guidance around Conflicts of Interest, in Regulatory Guide 181. And it's good. Useful. Broader than before, touching on a wider range of potential conflicts amongst a much larger ecosystem than was the case when it was last refreshed (2004, ahem). It's one of our longest episodes, but even with our weird tangents and Simpsons quotes and more Willy Wonka recitations than you'd expect, we think it's still actually pretty...
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S7E4 The Business of Advice with Patrick Flynn
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
Continuing our streak of bringing people on, then putting them in commercially awkward positions by asking silly questions, we're joined in this episode by Patrick Flynn of Simply Kaizen. Who, despite our shenanigans, is happy to discuss: Why the leap from 1-2 advisers to 7+ is across such a large canyon Where Kaizen comes from and how it feeds into his philosophy about the business of advice Why the skills that make you a great financial adviser may not make you a great business owner - and why that's ok The red lines we get to - have to? - draw as business owners when it comes to managing...
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S7E3 Weaknesses
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
Weaknesses - we've all got 'em. But, what do we do about them? This week's episode sees Jordan and Nathan exploring the idea of weaknesses: What they are (and what they aren't) How to recognise them What to do about them How the weaknesses we all have can manifest in our work, our personal lives and our practices There's a smidge of vulnerability from the two of them, but hopefully you leave with a framework to tackle your own weaknesses - all with the goal of working towards your very best selves! After all, it's not a second, seven seconds away... You can now get CPD...
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S7E2 Can You Act? Divorce Dilemmas
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
Time for more dilemmas - this time, what do you do when a client (strongly) hints they want to end their marriage? How do you handle the disclosure? How do you advise them? What do you do about the partner? Throw in TPD, infidelity, a brief detour in ASIC's SMSF report and a healthy dose of uncertainty, and you've got this week's episode. In it, Jordan and Nathan: Propose frameworks to help you navigate this very thorny issue Thank the wonderful advisers who have posed these questions recently Congratulate all of you out there expanding the remit of financial advice, by examining your...
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S7E1 Why You Should Attend Conferences, with Glen James
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
You see the event announcement, and you think to yourself, "Flights, Accomodation, Time out of the business, Time away from your family... is this conference really worth it?" In this episode (recorded live in the vendor hall of the FAAA Congress 2025) Jordan and Nathan are joined by Glen James (Podcaster Extraordinaire, now Youtuber) to discuss How the gold Glen got from conferences helped set up Glens business for success Why your mind set, and 'leaning in' is the key to get the most out How is always something to be learned, but the key is in taking action on those matters afterwards Why...
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S6E20 The James Wrigley Episode
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
Fresh off the release of his first book - Retire Life Ready - we're joined by James Wrigley. With the largest following on social media of any Australian financial adviser*, James is building his practice by talking to people on all the social platforms. Which is why, in this episode, we studiously ignored talking about social media or marketing. Instead, we wanted to know about his experience working within a larger firm: How do they structure their teams? What're the key considerations with managing the people around you? How are they sharing the work that James' public profile...
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S6E19 The Investment Dilemma
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
Index vs Active - it's the investment debate we all love to keep having. Or, is it? Because what's presented as a flat, binary choice is really much more nuanced. And, to be frank, boring. More interesting to us - and what we explore in this week's episode - is the framework and process advisers build to help answer the many "what about"s that come up when we're building our own investment philosophy. Because indexing is fantastic...but what about that concentration risk? And active management has its place...but what about those costs? There is grey here, which we love to...
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S6E18 Ethics of CPD with Clayton Daniel
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice
How much of your actual development as a professional is being captured via your CPD obligations? Are you only doing 40 hours of learning across the year? Or are you constantly learning? If the latter, then join us this week as we chat with Clayton Daniel of CPD Check. Best known for his central role in the rise of the Ensombl platform, Clayton has turned his eye to expanding and democratising the CPD accreditation process. And he's gone even further and agreed to allow us to submit all future (and up to 20 past) CTS episodes for accreditation! That's right - you'll be able to get CPD...
info_outlineWe genuinely had a plan for this episode...and then it just ran right off the rails.
Which is a shame*.
Because ASIC have updated their regulatory guidance around Conflicts of Interest, in Regulatory Guide 181.
And it's good.
Useful. Broader than before, touching on a wider range of potential conflicts amongst a much larger ecosystem than was the case when it was last refreshed (2004, ahem).
It's one of our longest episodes, but even with our weird tangents and Simpsons quotes and more Willy Wonka recitations than you'd expect, we think it's still actually pretty helpful.
Hopefully, anyway.
*A hilarious, rollercoaster, digression-filled jaunt through our year-end tired minds, shame.
Link to the RG: RG 181 AFS licensing: Managing conflicts of interest | ASIC
You can now get CPD points for listening to two knuckleheads (and guests!) wax lyrical about financial advice for an hour at a time.
CPD For this Episode: https://quiz.ensombl.com/NATH-25121808-54570001
Nathan:
Jordan:
LinkedIn:
Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice (Podcast): Overview | LinkedIn
The information contained in this podcast is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.
Jordan and Nathan are both authorised representatives of PlanningSolo Licensing, AFS Licence 526143.