Starting own Risk Advice Business

Hi there,

I have been working in the financial planning industry for nearly 4 years with my ultimate goal being to work as a financial planner. I'm currently working in small firm where I am exposed to both admin and paraplanning and am looking to move into a client-facing "associate adviser" type role soon (risk business only). It's only been in the last 6 months that I have been exposed properly to the risk management side of planning and discovered something that I am really passionate about. My long term (or maybe not so long term!) goal is to work as an independent risk advisor, concentrating almost solely on risk business.

I'd thought I'd put a post out there to see if anyone had any useful hints, comments or suggestions regarding this idea. Is it possible to be an idependent risk advisor? Or, more importantly, if I wanted to work for myself do you think I could raise enough revenue to pay the dealer group fees necessary to become an authorised representative? If so, does anyone have any suggestions for a dealer group that is willing to support a new advisor in the business?

At the moment I really am just in the planning stages, however want to make sure I'm heading in the right direction and know what will be ahead of me in the future...

If there are any specialist risk advisors out there I would love to hear from you! Would also appreciate any other comments regarding running a small business etc and working for yourself rather than for an organisation??

Thanks,

Megs

I can only tell you about my personal experience. Years ago when I first started investing, my financial planner asked me 6 questions. The answers to these questions were to evaluate my 'risk profile'. At no time was monetary values proposed like; You might lose 50% or $50,000.

Given the choice, I would take the minimum risk for the outcome I desired.

Nowadays, software is more significant ei. IFA.COM risk evaluator, But this is only backtesting data.

How can you make a business out of predicting the future? I'm very interested.



Johny.

Thanks Johny, although what I meant by risk advisor was an insurance specialist. Industry term for insurance planning is "risk management". I didn't actually realise that nowhere in my post did I actually use the word "insurance"!!

I'm not advising yet, but I think it's vital to setup a referral network if you want to be successful. Try to build up some relationships with local accountants, mortgage brokers etc. Of course, this may involve paying them a referral commission, but it will probably be worth it if they provide you withe enough business.

There are businesses out there that do pure risk, so I don't see why it wouldn't be a possibility.

When you say pure risk, do you mean insurance type companies or are you referring to something different?

If so could you please state some examples as I'm also interested in doing what the OP is interested in as a long term goal but haven't found it feasible.

Yes, personal insurances, and business insurances (they will often have brokers that specialise in general insurances as well).

This bloke (link to a pdf article) does alright for himself apparently: http://www.afa.asn.au/documents/medi...e_the_edge.pdf

Thanks Jdf81... always interested to read articles about the success of insurance advisors - only makes my ambition to reach this goal so much stronger!! I know an advisor that has used PIS Dealer Group before and it sounds like they support risk advisors really well. Will look into their fees and support structures etc.

Does anyone else have any suggestions for articles, reference materials I could read to help me increase my knowledge in insurance area. Would be nice to see some good examples of insurance strategies etc... And read articles regarding debates surrounding trauma insurance for example.