Blue Chip Issue 85

BLUE CHIP BLUE CHIP On

BLUE CHIP BLUE CHIP On the money Making waves this quarter Leaders with a clean slate LEADEREX 2022 The Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa (FPI) was proud to be among 300 of the country’s top thought leaders at Leaderex 2022, South Africa’s premier business event which took place in September at the Sandton Convention Centre in Gauteng. Designed to provide attendees with insights into industry trends, Leaderex included 20 conferences and over 100 masterclasses. The programme was highly relevant to leaders in today’s fractured and complex socio-political world. The current uncertainty dominating South Africa across loadshedding, politics and corruption formed part of the discussions, allowing leaders to connect on real issues. The event had an impressive list of sponsors that included the JSE as the primary sponsor, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the Institute of Directors South Africa (IoDSA) and the FPI. “At the JSE, educating South Africans about financial markets is a key focus for us as this creates ownership of one’s financial journey. The JSE working with platforms such as Leaderex opens doors for us to educate more South Africans about investing on the stock exchange and taking the first steps in your investment journey,” says Vuyo Lee, director of marketing and corporate affairs at the JSE. Financial planning was an aligned theme. As David Kop, CFP®, HOD: Policy and Engagement at FPI, says, “FPI has been part of Leaderex since 2016. It is a fantastic platform for us to engage with industry leaders and for us to showcase what financial planning is. The attendees are engaging and appreciative of both the talks and the complimentary financial planning sessions on offer.” STARTING WITH A CLEAN SLATE We have recently come across “Slate”, an exciting new Wealth Tech platform in the advice software market in South Africa. Slate expertly addresses the concern that planners have been falling short of delivery expectations in exactly the areas of the advice value chain that clients have explicitly prioritised as the most important areas to them. Slate provides a way for the planner to reinvent the first meeting that a planner has with a client, to accurately capture the information about the client’s hopes and dreams. It kicks off with the planner and client playing the digital equivalent of a board game where each card in the deck is a different potential life priority. Cards that are important and relevant to the client are force-ranked by placing them in areas of the board based on relative importance and timing. Using the intel provided by the Slate system, it is easy for the planner and client to then transform each priority into a very visual and understandable SMART financial goal. Slate plugs seamlessly into the first part of any planner’s advice process and can be integrated into existing CRM, compliance and planning systems. Slate also plays a very strong role in strengthening the value provided by planners in the ongoing post-sale servicing of clients. The monitoring module of Slate, powered by Yodlee, allows planner and client to keep abreast of performance against financial goals and to act where it is necessary. The co-creation methodology provided by Slate, underpinned by its goals-based philosophy and its total focus on customer centricity and “doing things right”, is what sets it apart from other technology. After 18 months of testing, Slate launched in Q2 2022 for use by a limited set of money mentors and is now ready for adoption by the wider market. Planners should visit www.slateadvisor.com to read more about Slate, see a short video and register interest for a demo. Alternatively planners should contact the founder, Andrew Broadley, on andrew.broadley@slateadvisor.com.

Advice software. Built for better performance. iress.com/financial-advice