There is no denying the day-to-day for a financial planner is often a blur of meetings, client interactions, strategy development, keeping abreast of the market, staying informed about industry trends, while maintaining compliance. Added to this are the FASEA education requirements, which mean many advisers will need to study again.

With the regulatory changes over the last few years and the proposed changes on the table right now, there has been a drain on the time available to do the most important work i.e. meeting your clients’ goals. Compliance is demanding and obligatory. How do you make time for your business and clients and still meet your professional requirements?

The only way is to rely on effective delegation. Trust your team and give them a chance to prove what they can do. If you set up a robust reporting process you will still know what is going on without having to micro-manage.

Next, assess what are the most consuming tasks within your practice and source a fintech solution to improve the efficiency of these processes. The universe of fintech is a little overwhelming so accessing the expertise of the technology specialists within your licensee will help refine your fintech view. With their guidance, decide on what your ‘source of truth’ is for client data, and make sure the fintech you select can talk to this system. More and more fintech is connecting at the backend, so the issues of double handling or data duplication are becoming less common. By utilising technology there is significant time savings to be had. The key is to be willing to sacrifice a little time upfront to get the systems set up and supported.

Through the course of assessing and implementing fintech, you will quantify the time freed up for other activities. This time needs to be allocated to specific activities with outcomes, otherwise it will be swallowed up in BAU. Perhaps you can aim to meet with a set number of new clients each month or increase educational/branding activity to promote your business. Whatever you decide, make it happen.

When it comes to meeting education requirements, unfortunately, there is no substitute for your own effort. By now you will have determined what extra units you need to complete. Be realistic about what you can achieve – for a full-time worker one unit per teaching period is reasonable. There may be times you can pick-up more but remember the other parts in your life which need to be balanced.

For one unit, aim for at least 10 hours of study per week but preferably more. Your first reaction may be concern around where you will find this time in your existing week. Be ruthless with your diary and you’ll be amazed just how many stray hours you will find. What do you do on your commute to work? Could you study during a couple of lunch times during the week? How many kid activities do you sit at, tuning out? Could you negotiate with your employer for some flexibility to work from home a day a week and do study during your usual commute time? Would your employer be comfortable with you scheduling set time each week to study at work (say just an hour)?

The final factor is motivation. How are you going to stay on track? Consider starting a study group at work and help each other through. The higher we lift, the better our profession will become.