A Busy Month On The Road

SPEAKER_02 0:10

For those that followed our stories in the last month, we had a busy, busy month. Boy, it was a bit busy. Beginning of March, we went to Christchurch to have uh periconference. That was cool. You uh threw the big red ball around.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Yeah, it landed on my head. And I nearly broke like the chandeliers.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Yep. You nearly broke the chandeliers. For those that want to see that picture, let me know. I'll send it to you.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I thought I was gonna win that competition, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

I thought you did.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Did I?

SPEAKER_02 0:37

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Nobody told me. Nobody told you.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

No, I'll follow up. And then we went to we came back home and we organized two seminars. We had one for our people that are looking to retire soon or, you know, invest, reverse mortgages, etc. And then we had another one for our first-time buyers, which was absolutely roaring success. And you know, just yesterday I got asked by some people that attended those seminars, are you guys gonna do another one? Yeah, you should do another one.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

So that's kind of that feedback too in the in the messages that have come back from the retired uh I because I got in touch with all the seniors. Yes, and they were yeah, no, the feedback's been really good.

Seminars For Seniors And First Home Buyers

SPEAKER_02 1:17

All right, maybe we'll plan another one later this year. Um, and then we took off and we went to Auckland for the conference Financial Advice New Zealand Conference. And that was fun, right? Let's summarize that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

That was different. I don't even know where to start.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

I know there's some crazy stuff. Well, what I think is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Well, you didn't come for after hour drinks, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

I didn't, I was a I was a very good boy.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

You're a very good boy, you behaved. But I guess the highlight for me was to see to see where the industry's going and how much AI is shaping our industry, but at the same time, how much AI needs a human touch as well. So it's not like them versus us, it's not AI versus human. It's how can humans work together with AI to get better outcomes for their clients.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

I totally agree. And I felt like there's there's a happy, there's a happy medium, there's a happy, happy middle ground ground that needs to be had. I don't feel like I don't feel like clients are gonna be happy if they the way some people are talking about dealing with their clients is using AI to do all their comms for them and have their interviews with their clients. I don't I don't feel like that's something that clients are gonna want to do.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

No, and the thing is a lot of people still need that human touch. Like I had uh I'll give you an example recently. I was doing insurance review for one of my clients and he asked me for some quotes. I sent him some quotes, and then we sit down to talk, and he's like an AI architect, dude. Like he actually designs AI, yeah, he works as AI. So he ran those quotes that I gave him through all of his programs and you know got his programs to explain him the products, etc. etc. So when I sat down with him and I said, Okay, do you understand the products? He goes, Well, sort of. I had a bit of a read. He said, Cool, well, let's talk about you know life insurance, let's talk about trauma cover, let's talk about mortgage protection. So I explained every single product for him, I explained every single benefit. And he said to me, You will not believe this. I ran this quotes that you gave me across three, four different AI bots, and I got the AI to explain to me. But what you just did in five minutes was way better than all this information that I got from all these AI bots, and I spent hours reading it.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Oh wow.

AI In Advice Needs Human Context

SPEAKER_02 3:38

So that just shows that sometimes hearing it from an actual human that knows how to relate it in a human language makes the world of difference.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

It's it's just you sort of cut through because you've got that experience, right? So you know exactly where to s where to where to go. Whereas if you're starting from square one and you're asking AI, you there's a lot that you have to untangle. Uh so I was I came away from the conference feeling really confident that AI is gonna be very, very helpful, but also feeling that there is a there's a big market out there for people who are not you know, my parents' generation and the generation behind them are not gonna be using AI.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

No.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

So that aging demographic that it I could see the sort of in and it happened a little bit with our seminars about how we marketed to them. So first home buyers, a lot of it was social media and stuff like that. The the the seniors, the over 60s, it was face-to-face, it was people we knew and had that existing relationships with that knew who we were. And those are the ones that turned up and paid attention. Whereas the younger crowd, you know, the social media type thing is more of an option. Like I know we put a barcode on our poster for the seniors. I don't know if anybody scared of barcodes. Because I could just imagine my dad trying to use a barcode, you know. Um so that was quite funny. But yeah, comp a different different markets, different ways to get to your clients.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

The other thing I like from the conference was a presentation by Scott Fitzpatrick about you know your goals. Uh, where do you want to be? You know, 90 days, where do you want to be one year later, five year later, ten year later? You know, and that could be different for different families, you know, those goals.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

That guy's interesting. Hey, was that the Australian guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:43

And we love Aussies. You know, it was really cool. So I got a little diagram from him and he pointed it out right where we're actually sitting on family advice boards. Yeah. You know, we we're the board member of the families.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Where we help them to navigate those financial trenches.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

It's treacherous. I'm dealing with, you know, I mean you're the same, and we can't use names obviously, but just the sort of dra the dramas that are going on out there with every single family, and you can only see it getting significantly worse because of the the the huge amount of wealth that's changing hands from baby boomers to the next generation. And I think this is where he's he's in that really good space of helping those families make that transition that uh do they have legacies and stuff like that. We were very lucky. We got to listen to Scott twice. Yeah, we must follow him on LinkedIn actually. Yeah, yeah. Um that guy was yeah, he was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

He was lovely, and what I loved about him, you know, he said, Look, I my background is I was a PE teacher. Yeah, you know, he was just a teacher from the school that decided to go, actually, I can you know help families.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

I want to be like him, he's my role model.

KiwiSaver Ownership And Retirement Reality

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Yeah, and I think this is where I see you a lot, you know, and I think it comes from that care that you care for your clients, you care for your students, you know, you want you want them to do better, you want them to excel. And I think a lot of the time we may get an you know, sometimes we we get stuck in a day of we're fighting banks, we're fighting fires, but we're actually fighting it for our clients. We we want them to get ahead in life. And I thought, yeah, that conference was really awesome. What else did we had a column?

SPEAKER_00 7:24

So Scott was really good.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Did we have the economist come?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

The economist came along and and and talked. What bank was he from?

unknown 7:32

Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

I know there was a good chore chat about. I mean, I you know, because I'm interested in what's happening in the aging demographic.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

So when we're Kiwi Savers and the retirement, and again, that seems to be the theme at the moment as people Kiwi Saver was a big theme, eh? People need to pay attention to their Kiwi Savers, people need to take charge of their Kiwi Savers. It's not one of those products that you know you can just sit and forget anymore. It's you need to be in charge of that vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

You absolutely do, and you need to make really take the time. If you're so AI was a big theme, and the other big theme was was Kiwi Saver and how it could be really awesome for people. But the other thing that came, the thing that came out of KiwiSaver is if you're making the minimum contributions, it is probably got not going to be enough for your retirement. So you need to take real ownership of your KiwiSaver. And if you are with a sort of decent KiwiSaver provider, and on you'll be able to get investment and an investment advisor to help you. So I'm thinking boost, you know, you can talk to us, you can talk to us, and we can point you in the right direction.

Insurance Reviews And Rising Costs

SPEAKER_02 8:41

Because we made lots of friends, right? When we were at the conference, we actually made a lot of friends that we know we're comfortable to refer you to them. The other thing that came up again is the medical cost and how things are getting more and more expensive. And you've got to again watch out what sort of insurance do you have, what sort of providers are you using? You know, when was the last time you reviewed your insurances? Because again, the advisors can only do so much, but then the onus also falls on the client. Like you've got to be in charge of those things. And right now, when the things are getting more expensive, a lot of people just want to cancel everything. But this is not the right approach.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

We're seeing people just put their head in the sands, right? Yeah. They're just like in the sand, in the sand. You've you've you can't do that. You've got to be aware of what you have and what you don't have. We've got we've got good people that you can talk to as well with in the income and and life, insurance and health. So please do reach out for that as well. I'm going through that process as well myself. Yeah. Um, and you know, I think you're uninsurable, James. Yeah, yeah, I think if it's not me, it's my wife. I I I'm um yeah, anyway, she does listen to some of these, so yeah, so be careful what you say.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Happy wife, happy life. Just reminding you.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

It takes a bit of time, but it's worth it, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

It's worth it. And you know, you want to know what you have. It blows my mind how many people when I ask them, what do you have? and they're like, I don't know. I had a client yesterday, she's paying$80 a fortnight for life insurance. And I'm like, What are you what are you actually paying for$80 for? She's like, I don't know. I'm just I've just been paying it for the last five years. Yeah. And and then I tried to look up her policies and she still got her old address. So all the letters are going to the old address, and now it's like a safe house. And she goes, Oof, I don't want those people getting my information.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

And I was like, Yeah, you you know, you gotta pay attention to those things. So if you recently moved the house, this is your reminder, you know, look back at your letters.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Once you've got the right advisor, that that advisor will take it will keep in better contact with you. Like we were with someone for 20 years, never heard from him once until we, you know, I I got my insurance reviewed, and then all of a sudden he was in they were interested in me again, but only because I was leaving you know, his his thing. So, you know, if you get a good insurance advisor, it's not gonna cost you anything either for them to review your situation. You might not need to change anything. Yeah, they might say, Look, you're good, or they might say you're overinsured.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yeah.

Wills, EPOA, Webinars, Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 11:07

So, and and they might be able to save you some money, especially the people that we work with. So definitely look into you know, and we I talked about stuff to do with wills and oh yes, wills was another one came up review of it. People just aren't doing wells, older people, yeah, or even younger people our age, you've got a family, you've got to have a will.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

But also enduring power of attorney, you know, those things. So we will be looking to put up webinar, maybe a webinar version of what we did at our seminar. So if you are keen, drop us a line, you know, get on our a mailing list so you are aware of those events because what we're trying to do is just elevate that knowledge, the financial literacy that every New Zealander needs, you know, because we will be better off if all of us know what we're doing, instead of just asking an advice from Uncle Uncle Joe at the barbecue.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yeah. Yeah. We're trying to raise awareness, right? And I'm us and you're general across everybody, and I suppose I'm more focused on raising awareness of the services available for the aging people. But yeah, it doesn't cost anything to talk to us, right? No, we can point you in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

It doesn't. So absolutely good times. Thank you, James. I think that conference will still linger on in our minds a little bit longer about what we've learned and how do we see things implementing in our businesses.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Beautiful. Thank you for coming. See ya.