The right learning for financial advisers

When it comes to learning for financial advisers, you will find a variety of offerings and solutions. Especially with the CPD requirements announced in BN194 of 2017 that financial planners and advisers must adhere to if they want to keep their license to provide advice and intermediary services. Regulatory requirements often create an environment where people are “forced” to spend time on things they often regarded as time-wasters before, causing them to look for the quickest, cheapest, easiest way to meet requirements and to stay in business.  The intention of the Regulator is to uplift, enhance and grow financial advisers and the industry or profession, but this is lost when financial advisers don’t make full use of the opportunity to do exactly that through continuous learning.

My values

Continuous learning is one of my highest values. I believe in it. It is what allows me to do what I do. And I love working with people who share this value of learning.

Is learning always fun?

Did I always enjoy learning?

Hell no!

Especially school. I did not like most of the things I had to learn at school from an academic point. But I did like the things that I had a natural interest in. In fact, when learning something I am interested in, learning becomes fun.

Fast forward to today, today I love (and cannot stop) learning about new technology, successfully running a business, financial planning, sales, marketing, and client experience and engagement.

What do I do with what I learn?

I spend every free minute learning about these aspects. And then I apply it in my business.

That is where the real learning takes place! I also use my learning to enhance my courses, workshops, and webinars. I often learn even more when I share my knowledge with like-minded people and hear their stories in return.

But this article is not about me

The purpose of this article is to inspire you to embrace learning. The right learning.

How great would it be if you decided to say to yourself: “how interesting is that?” instead of: “what can they teach me?” or “I never use this with my clients anyway” or “I already know this stuff”.

By saying: “how interesting is that?“, you open your mind to new opportunities, ideas, and possibilities. And the funny consequence of this approach is how much more fun it becomes to invest time learning. Try it.

The right learning for financial advisers

This can be an entire article in itself.

In essence, the right learning means:

• learning that addresses an identified skills gap for you and/or your team;
• content that is of high quality;
• content that is up to date;
• content that is practical and applicable to you and your clients;
• learning that is offered in your preferred way of learning, i.e. face-to-face, online, etc.;
• learning that offers you the choice to go deep on a topic or to do shorter content that can fit in your schedule more easily;
• learning that allows you to choose a curriculum that will bring you and your team the most value.

Is learning an expense or an investment?

Let me keep this short and to the point.

When you do any learning just so you can earn the required CPD points, whether you pay for the event or attend it for free, it is an expense. You get no or very little value, simply because it is not the right learning for you. Granted, sometimes you may get lucky and attend something that turns out to be a life-changer for you, but that won’t happen very often, if ever.

When you do or attend the right learning, in other words, being strategic and intentional with your choice of events or learning and the learning is aligned to your identified skills gap(s), then it is an investment. An investment of both your time and your money. Why? Because you will have a return on your investment in numerous ways. More about that in another article.

In closing

What do you think?

What works for you and what are you interested in? Do you know what your and your team’s skills gaps are? Are you intentional and strategic with your learning?

Are you investing in learning or spending on learning?

Thanks for reading all the way to the end, it means the world to me. I look forward to hearing what you think.

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