The world of alternative investments is at a crossroads. As markets defy expectations and liquidity concerns take centre stage, investors find themselves forced to rethink how they deploy capital in an increasingly complex environment.
An imminent big-milestone birthday has the Brilliant Investment Group (BIG) executive chair thinking about what he’d like to see this year.
Why a regional base is a ‘superpower’ for this advice firm
Kane Leersen certainly doesn’t buy into the concept that operating in a regional city is a hindrance for a professional services firm.
“It’s the other way around,” he says. “Being regionally based is a superpower, because you’re part of a community.”
By background, Leersen is a fifth-generation shearer from the tiny western Victorian locality of Yeo, just outside the town of Colac, 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne. After leaving school, he went to Deakin University in Geelong, an hour away, to gain a degree in financial planning and services and management, which he followed with an MBA from the same institution.
“I went to university because I wanted to keep playing football and cricket unimpeded, and not have to shear sheep,” he laughs. “My careers counsellor at school said, ‘start with an arts/commerce degree, and you’ll work out what you want to do.’ I got an offer to do arts/commerce, so I went with that. I came across a financial planning unit in the commerce degree, and I just liked that balance between the technical side and the human engagement, which probably suited my personality type. The rest evolved over time.”
Wanting to turn his studies into a career, Leersen became a paraplanner at the Geelong office of financial advisory and accounting services firm Crowe Horwath. “I was a terrible para-planner, so I moved into a position as a general insurance adviser. I then moved across to a Geelong-based financial planning and advice practice, Income Solutions, and that opportunity lit the fire for me in advice.”
Nine years later, he leads financial advice firm Regional Prosperity in Colac, although he hasn’t settled on a job title just yet. In the country, it’s not that important.
“We tell our clients that we do things differently because we’re from where they’re from; that’s real mud on our 4WDs and our RM Williams boots have actually walked on grass. We feel that’s true, and we do ‘get’ regional people, but in fairness to city-based advisers, it all starts with a conversation, curiosity, and a human connection with the client.”
From there, the two questions Leersen always asks his team are, ‘What is it the client really wants?’ and ‘What’s the problem we’re actually trying to solve?’ “We’re dealing with people ranging all the way from starting on their investment journey, right through to helping big agribusiness family companies, with $50 million to $100 million in assets, deal with complex inter-generational wealth transfers. However, the common theme across all clients is that you see so many people who are just frozen with doubt around what they perceive as the complexity of these unavoidable decisions, and they need and want help. That’s where the human connection, and building trust, is absolutely crucial.”
In a real community, you can have a head-start on trust, says Leersen. “Through an academic lens they will call that sense of trust a ‘social contract,’ but in reality, we have an actual obligation to do the best we can by our people. If something ever went wrong, there isn’t anywhere to hide. My prep teacher, grade one teacher, and grade two teacher are now my clients. When I first sat down with my prep teacher to discuss her advice need, she said, ‘Kane, I trusted you as a five-year-old, so whatever you think we need to do now is fine.” That level of accountability ensures the character of behaviours in our communities will be consistent. Client word-of-mouth is the be-all-and-end-all for us; that is what has driven our practice forward.”
His prep teacher may be an extreme example, but Leersen believes that deeper connections can be built in the country. But, wherever they practice, an adviser can only make this connection, and build this trust, if he or she can “understand your real value and what you’re really trying to solve for the client,” he says. “If you’re clear on that, you won’t default to complexity, which to me is the biggest bugbear of our industry. We think that the technical knowledge part of advice is a given; clients expect that, but above all, they want human connection and trust to help understand their financial anxieties and support them in moving forward with confidence. As we grow, that’s what we’re looking to engineer into our team, people that take great pride in serving their clients.”
And that’s another angle to the ‘superpower’ of regionality.
“I want to work with engaged people, share the profit of the business moving forward, and genuinely have a positive impact on the community. And for us to do that, our people have to do well themselves, and live a fulfilling life,” he says. “I do talk to advisers who like the idea of buying a nice home for much less than they would pay in the city, having a five-minute commute to work, and having really strong local relationships. It is becoming increasingly attractive to more people – they know they can combine a career with a great family life in a place like this.”
These days, internet connectivity means that clients can be anywhere.
“It’s really interesting, because we’ve landed in the middle of this emergent need for specialised advice solutions for prosperous regional Australian families. Our client base has organically grown into Geelong and Melbourne, and across to Adelaide. We have realised we can help define and shape family legacies, identifying strategic actions to enable the wealth that will support their future,” says Leersen. “We can provide that digital solution, and it’s something that I’m interested in moving forward. I’m still old school, I love to meet in person and get a feel for people initially, but then I think digitally, we can move forward with that relationship more efficiently.”
Regional Prosperity has three adviser partners, four associate advisers doing their professional year (PY) qualification, and two support staff. “Our ownership continues to evolve, and we intend to spread the equity when our PY graduates transition to advising. So, we can handle growth, and we seek it. But it’s not about trying to own the world. Internally, we have a value to ‘grow by good,’ so it’s always going to be growth that comes from serving more people in the same way that’s got us this far.”
