tl;dr:
- I’ve co-founded a new financial life planning advice business, based in Switzerland and the UK: Kenwell Financial Life Planners.
- We are open for business, check us out kenwell.ch
- My Aussie financial planner friends: We are looking for Australian strategic partners.
I am proud to announce that Kenwell Financial Life Planners is now open for business in both Switzerland and the United Kingdom. My co-founders and I have created a financial advice business that focusses truly on planning for the person you are, not just the money you have (to borrow a phrase from my previous incarnation at ipac Western Australia).
Nearly three years ago, I sold my financial planning business in Western Australia and made the move to Switzerland. This was to be a career change as well as a geographical move.
A few things got in the way – like a global pandemic that resulted in some changed plans. The positive was that it proved my vision of an online advice business – that so many doubted could work pre-pandemic – has proved to be not only do-able, but preferable in many ways. It’s allowed me to build a practice as a mentor to entrepreneurs in Australia which I have loved doing (and plan on continuing).
Additionally, this finance geek has enjoyed exploring one of the leading centres of world finance to see how things are done over here. Truth is, there remains a lot of room for improvement all around the world.
A recent report from Andreesen Horowicz highlighted the complete collapse in institutional trust from investors around the world. Increasingly, both our businesses and governments are seen as unethical and incompetent.
Having had institutional business partners in Australia, and then observing the practices of financial institutions in Switzerland and Europe, this rang true to me. And it’s not just the Mums and Dads who are being ripped off. The bigger the dollars, the greedier the banks seem to be (which kind of makes sense, as if you are small fry, they just don’t seem to be bothered trying to clean you out).
More than that, I saw the opportunity that existed to provide quality financial advice, without the intrusion of legacy issues, or institutional avarice. I observed that while many things were changing – the world becomes smaller and more connected, capital becomes more mobile and fungible – other things were not. People still have a need to put their financial resources within the perspective of their life goals and values. They still need help – even more so – in navigating the labyrinth of government regulations and jurisdictional interactions.
While these needs remain unchanged, the demand for them is increasing. Despite the frustrations of COVID, there are more and more people whose circumstances transcend one country or one jurisdiction. As Davidson and Rees-Mogg predicted in 1999, and as trends such as blockchains are facilitating in 2022, there is an increasing cohort that see governments as service providers and seek to get the best value for their money.
Plenty of companies are interested in the money these people have. Very few are interested in them simply as people.
Equally, the team at Kenwell have a great empathy for small business owners, entrepreneurs and professional sportspeople. We continue to build a multi-disciplinary practice that allows advisers to develop their own area of specialization.
Off the back of that, we built the financial life planning business that does that, and developed the framework – the Kenwell GAME plan – to do it within.
We have several advantages:
- Practical and proven experience in delivering financial advice that puts the client first (incidentally, is an aspect where the Australian profession really is world-leading); and
- A regulatory environment in Switzerland that facilitates financial advice and deep individual relationships.
More than measuring wealth, it’s important to track your progress through measuring Your Financial Wellbeing. At Kenwell, we’ve developed our very own Scorecard to do just that, so why wait? Head to our Scorecard today and start assessing your starting point for FREE!