Diagnosis & Solution Design
Understand where pressure, rework or owner dependence is coming from and design a practical future state across workflows, roles, systems and controls.
For Financial Planning Firms
Your practice should become more capable as it grows, not more dependent on you.
The team is busy and the practice may be growing, but reviews, exceptions and handovers still come back to the principal. Heron helps privately owned advice practices reduce that operational dependence by clarifying how work, decisions and responsibility move through the practice.
The work is grounded in 16 years across financial advice and related financial-services businesses, including eight years leading operations in a national 160-person group operating under its own AFSL.
The work is grounded in 16 years across financial advice and related financial-services businesses, including eight years leading operations in a national 160-person group operating under its own AFSL.
What principals often say
Do any of these sound familiar?
“We have good people, but everything still seems to come back to me.”
“The team is always busy, but I can’t see where all the capacity is going.”
“We’ve invested in systems, but people still rely on spreadsheets, inboxes and memory.”
“Every adviser and support person seems to do things slightly differently.”
“Reviews, follow-ups and handovers get done, but often only because someone is constantly chasing them.”
“I don’t know whether we need another person, better technology, clearer processes or stronger management.”
“The team is always busy, but I can’t see where all the capacity is going.”
“We’ve invested in systems, but people still rely on spreadsheets, inboxes and memory.”
“Every adviser and support person seems to do things slightly differently.”
“Reviews, follow-ups and handovers get done, but often only because someone is constantly chasing them.”
“I don’t know whether we need another person, better technology, clearer processes or stronger management.”
HOW HERON CAN HELP
Capabilities Heron can bring to a financial planning practice.
An engagement can start with an Operational Diagnostic, one issue from Heron's defined Fix One Issue list, 12-week Operational Advisory or Embedded Capacity. Inside that work, Heron can combine diagnosis & solution design, project delivery and change & adoption as needed.
Project Delivery
Lead defined initiatives such as CRM implementations, workflow redesign, automation, reporting or governance improvements through to delivery.
Change & Adoption
Help advisers and support teams understand, adopt and sustain new systems, processes, responsibilities and ways of working.
Operations across the practice
Five operational areas that shape consistent advice
Advice quality depends on more than the adviser. It relies on how enquiries, client work, people, systems, information and compliance operate together across the practice.
Marketing and Growth Operations
The workflows behind referrals, enquiries, follow-up and conversion, so opportunities don't disappear between the website, the CRM and the first meeting.
Client Onboarding and Service Delivery
Onboarding, advice preparation, implementation and reviews, so what's promised in the first meeting is still happening in month six.
Technology and Information
CRM, reporting, integrations and information flows designed around what the practice needs the technology to do. Heron sells no software and receives no commissions.
People and Capability
Role clarity, onboarding, management routines and coaching, so improvements are owned by the team and don't depend on the principal to hold them together.
Compliance and Governance Operations
Evidence, approvals, file standards and supervision built into the way work happens, so compliance is supported by the process rather than policed after it.
Look beneath the symptom
Before you add another person or system, check the cause.
“We need another support person.”
The real issue may be duplicated work, inconsistent adviser processes, unnecessary approvals or poor visibility over capacity.
“Our CRM isn't working.”
The real issue may be unclear requirements, inconsistent data, weak ownership, poor configuration or disconnected systems.
“We need more leads.”
The real issue may be slow response, inconsistent follow-up, weak qualification or poor handover between marketing and advisers.
Before adding people, systems or complexity, it is worth understanding what is actually creating the pressure.
The real issue may be duplicated work, inconsistent adviser processes, unnecessary approvals or poor visibility over capacity.
“Our CRM isn't working.”
The real issue may be unclear requirements, inconsistent data, weak ownership, poor configuration or disconnected systems.
“We need more leads.”
The real issue may be slow response, inconsistent follow-up, weak qualification or poor handover between marketing and advisers.
Before adding people, systems or complexity, it is worth understanding what is actually creating the pressure.
What clients experience
Operational consistency protects the reputation behind the practice.
Clients never see the workflow, CRM configuration, approval process or handover behind their advice. They experience whether the practice responds when promised, communicates clearly, appears coordinated and delivers reviews consistently.
In a privately owned practice, that reputation is deeply personal to the principal. Heron helps build the systems and team capability needed to protect it without relying on individual memory, constant checking or the principal stepping in.
In a privately owned practice, that reputation is deeply personal to the principal. Heron helps build the systems and team capability needed to protect it without relying on individual memory, constant checking or the principal stepping in.
Why Heron
Financial-services experience from inside the operation
The starting point is diagnosis, not a predetermined solution. Heron uses research, investigation and practice evidence to understand the constraint before recommending more people, technology or process.
My financial-services experience spans 16 years: eight years consulting to financial advice, mortgage broking, accounting, equipment finance, leasing and bookkeeping businesses, followed by eight years as Group Operations Manager and Executive Director of a national financial-services group employing more than 160 people and operating under its own AFSL.
My responsibilities extended across operations, technology, governance, compliance, reporting, project delivery and business performance. That means recommendations are designed around what actually has to happen in an advice practice: evidence requirements, file standards, approvals, supervision, record keeping and audit trails.
Heron sells no software and receives no commissions. The objective is not to fit the practice around a preferred platform or generic process, but to build an operating model that works inside the realities of a regulated advice business.
My financial-services experience spans 16 years: eight years consulting to financial advice, mortgage broking, accounting, equipment finance, leasing and bookkeeping businesses, followed by eight years as Group Operations Manager and Executive Director of a national financial-services group employing more than 160 people and operating under its own AFSL.
My responsibilities extended across operations, technology, governance, compliance, reporting, project delivery and business performance. That means recommendations are designed around what actually has to happen in an advice practice: evidence requirements, file standards, approvals, supervision, record keeping and audit trails.
Heron sells no software and receives no commissions. The objective is not to fit the practice around a preferred platform or generic process, but to build an operating model that works inside the realities of a regulated advice business.
Start with the pressure in the practice