Passion for finance

Robert Rich found his way into financial advice after a bad experience with an adviser. Since then, it has become his passion.

“I’ve got to work hard but I’m just genuinely loving what I’m doing. They say if you love what you’re doing then you never work a day in your life. It’s so true,” he says.

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Mr Rich is a relative newcomer to the financial advice industry, where he works with Phillip Richards for Endorphin Wealth.

Mr Rich was an accountant in a past life. It was only after an experience with a ‘swish’ adviser that he made the change.

“When we got our financial advice document, the man recommended that we get an off-the-plan apartment as part of the advice and said we had to pay them a really large $35,000 fee for the privilege of buying one. So, we had a bit of an argument,” Mr Rich says.

“He said you’re not the type of clients for me and to swished us out of his boardroom.”

It was that experience that led Mr Rich to Endorphin Wealth because he wanted to genuinely help people control their finances.

“If I actually had someone who financially cared about what was best for the client, I could do this for a living,” he expresses.

Mr Rich says part of his success came from being a property investor himself, which allowed him to mentor his clients.

“I’m walking the walk and talking the talk. I’m more than happy to the pass the knowledge on to my clients to help them grow their own wealth,” he explains.

Mr Rich says he was also able to relate to his clients as they generally were not high-net-worth individuals, which he felt the industry focused too much on.

“I feel like the majority of industry really focuses on anything in the high-net-worth sector. Whereas I think young people or people without a great deal of wealth are probably being forgotten about at this stage,” he says.

It was the ability to help those individuals to develop a financial blueprint for their future that was the rewarding part of the job for Mr Rich.

“When you’re sitting at a dinner table with a glass of wine in hand explaining to them that you know that they’ll be able to retire in three years’ time and just seeing that look on their faces,” he says

“It’s like ‘oh my gosh, wow, we can actually do it’. They look at each other and they hold hands and they cheer. That’s just what it’s all about really. I could just do that every day.”

In fact, client satisfaction ranked higher on Mr Rich’s list than winning Newcomer of the Year at the ifa Excellence Awards earlier this year.

“One of the biggest successes of my career was winning the ifa award. That was just outstanding,” he says.

“But I guess the biggest success is really meeting with clients with a complex situation and being able to tell them they’re fine.”

Mr Rich also expresses gratitude to the Barefoot Investor, Scott Pape, for his work in generating conversations about financial advice. He found that advisers were the last piece of the puzzle for many people.

“It’s creating a lot more conversation. A lot more people are trying to understand and ask questions. People are starting to become wiser about it, which is great,” he says.

“We don’t want a country full of sheep just kind of going about their business while the wealthy people just take advantage of the situation.”

Moving forward, Mr Rich says he wants to help build Endorphin, but also wants to focus on his own education.

“It’s good to complete my studies and have that additional knowledge for my client. I just want to continue to work with clients that energise me and inspire me to actually want to help them,” he says.

Mr Rich must be doing something right though, as his clients keep coming back to him and bringing their friends.

“I’ve got a lot of happy clients who give me great testimonials and I’m getting a lot of referrals from interested clients, which is just the best thing ever,” he concludes.