What Is Generic Financial Planning?

Generic Financial Planning is an international financial planning movement started by us in England in 2012. Today, we operate across six continents. Namely, Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.

We are the world's first generic financial planning network.

We train, mentor, and support a fast-growing, global, online, generic financial planning community. We share a master plan you can follow, the business blueprint and the toolkit to set up and run a successful generic financial planning Small & Medium Enterprise (S.M.E.). Enjoy being part of a fast-growing network of like-minded people. A supportive online global community. The Academy is an adult education learning community - that allows you to share with others facing similar challenges and struggles.

We are a one-stop shop providing everything you need.

Many highly skilled and reputable trainers in the planning community specialise in aspects of generic financial planning: such as listening skills, questioning skills, financial coaching, financial life planning, business coaching, tax planning, proposition development, etc. We respect them, work with them, recommend them to deepen your knowledge and encourage you to use them to improve your abilities. But when the training is done, then what? How do you build and run a successful business? 

There is only one place that provides everything you need and even teaches you everything you need to know to set up and run a successful generic financial planning business - and holds your hand from start to finish - and that's right here. 

We provide online, regular, one-to-one, personalised, and expert mentorship support to tailor coaching, training, and assistance to meet your needs. Enjoy monthly one-to-one, online coaching support to help you develop an exciting, fast-growing, future-proofed, profitable, valuable, and sustainable new business.

Learn a unique holistic planning process that creates and preserves well-being and wealth for your clients. That creates wealth and well-being in every area of their lives. Our comprehensive packages include the much-coveted G.A.M.E. Plan Accreditation and G.A.M.E. Plan Mentor Accreditation certificates. As a qualified practitioner, you will have life planning, financial planning, financial coaching, proposition development, asset strategy, and business planning skills.

We are unaware of any other firm that provides you with a complete business model you can use, modify and share commercially without fear of infringing intellectual property rights. Our model is 'open source': copyright-free.

All this is personalised to your Unique Selling Proposition and offered at amazingly affordable prices. We wanted to create an absolute 'no-brainer' decision for any aspiring, sustainable, future-ready financial planning practitioner.

Enjoy being a member of this trail-blazing, collaborative community, the world's first generic financial planning network.

Enjoy free access to HapNav, the world's first end-user lifetime financial planning tool linked to open banking software.

Enjoy much, much more ...

The investment industry attaches most financial planning advice to an investment adviser's investment recommendation. For most people, regulated investment advice is the only financial advice they get. Even tax planning advice is elusive, given that most people's accountants do their tax returns and nothing more. No one advises on other financial matters. 

But investment advice is not financial planning.

Regulated investments make up five per cent of the nation's wealth (source: UK ONS wealth and Asset survey). Financial planning is about planning all your finances, the complete 100%. Also, it is about making wealth, not simply saving wealth you've already made.

Investment advisers are paid by the investments they recommend. That can create a conflict of interest as the adviser can be motivated by the investment recommendation. And those fees can be hidden or buried within the investment. For example, the adviser will receive the ongoing adviser fee (OAF) with mutual funds. That fee is typically 1% of the fund assets annually. The investor will also pay the management fee on the fund, a platform fee, and a product fee.

The investor sees things this way. They would not write a cheque for the investment adviser's fee. They are happy instead for it to be taken out of the investment. They ask, "after your fee is taken do I do better than if I'd left the money with the bank?" To which the investment adviser (usually) replies, yes! The client replies, "then I am happy with your fee."

This deception is taking advantage of an information asymmetry and the financial illiteracy of a vulnerable investor. The perception is not the reality. The comparison of investment versus bank is not fair. The comparison should be between advised investment and direct investment. The evidence proves that direct investment wins 99% of the time.

See How To Fund The Life You Want, by Robin Powell & Jonathan Hollow.

Conflict-free advice.

Generic financial planners offer conflict-free advice. The client will receive financial planning but no investment recommendation. When you use a generic financial planner, there is a wall between the financial plan and the investments used to reach the financial goals. The fees paid are transparent and disclosed. It is a direct arrangement between the client and the planner.

Generic financial planners can concentrate on what they do best and where they can add the most significant value. They will create a holistic life plan. They will help you reach your financial and life goals. The separation of financial planning and investment recommendations makes perfect sense.

Financial planning integrates all aspects of your family's finances, including retirement, tax and estate planning, and investment and insurance strategies. Proper financial planning is a process, not a product.

The title of the financial planner is not a regulated one. So be sure when you hire a financial planner, you are hiring the highest-level professional, a Chartered Financial Planner or a Certified Financial Planner.

Generic financial planners are comprehensive advisers who can help you fit all the different pieces of your financial puzzle and don't sell any products.

Generic financial planning brings the integration of all areas of personal finance to the forefront and makes it the sole goal of the client-adviser relationship.

Generic financial planning ensures that the planner and their company are compensated solely by agreed-upon fees paid by the client. This approach means there are no hidden costs, third-party financial motivations or kickbacks – the planner represents the client and only the client.

Objectivity is the name of the game, which is essential in a global financial market that can be fraught with conflicts of interest.

Generic financial planning should not be confused with fee-based investment management, where investors pay an annual fee to their investment adviser based on a percentage of their investments. A fee-based approach is simply a way to pay your investment adviser.

Generic financial planning keeps planning and potential products separate, so most clients who work with a generic financial planner may also have a separate investment adviser and insurance agent.

Some people are reluctant to add another adviser to their repertoire. They already met with their accountant in January to complete their income taxes. They meet with their investment adviser in March to make their ISA contribution. They have an insurance agent who has arranged their insurance policies. They have a lawyer who updates their wills and powers of attorney from time to time. Even though these various professionals may be great at what they do individually, there is often little or no integration of their recommendations. The generic financial planner is your concierge and financial bodyguard, protecting you from conflicts of interest.

Generic financial planning fees are charged for comprehensive financial advice based on the expertise required, complexity and time required. Generic financial planners are professionals and charge their fees much like other professionals, such as lawyers or accountants. The fees have nothing to do with a client's income or assets, meaning every client is just as important as the next, and our planning is unbiased. This approach contrasts the traditional provision of financial or investment advice, where minimum investment levels apply, and compensation is paid to the adviser based on product choices. It means generic financial planning is accessible by anybody entirely objectively.

What's the return on investment from working with a generic financial adviser? It's hard to say because we never know what we'll find under the hood until we start. There are often explicit returns by achieving goals like better tax efficiency. Still, most clients would also tout the implicit benefit of working with a planner with no conflicts of interest who can answer many questions that others cannot or will not.