Simplicity, flexibility, and certainty: Lifespan shares the core values driving its success 

Lifespan Financial Planning has been supporting its community of professional, client-focused financial advisers since 1994 and has since grown to become one of Australia’s largest privately-owned dealer groups.

In 2024 the group will be celebrating 30 years of supporting advisers.

After winning Dealer Group of the Year and the Excellence Award at the ifa Excellence Awards 2022, chief executive of Lifespan Financial Planning, Eugene Ardino, said it is recognition of the unwavering support that Lifespan as a team provides to its advice community. 

It is also a recognition of the success of the Lifespan community as a whole — management, the team, and loyal advisers.  

“Whilst our growth in recent years has been considerable, we have focused on ensuring that our service and support for our advisers remains our core focus, alongside our desire to continue to grow as a group,” says Mr Ardino.

“We know that we wouldn’t be where we are, without the support of our advisers. We are uniquely positioned as a longstanding, privately-owned licensee, to continue to attract advisers who are seeking certainty in their licensee partner. 

Simplicity, flexibility, and certainty

From the very beginning, Lifespan’s overarching focus has always been on supporting advisers to provide quality advice to clients. Initially, advisers were predominantly focused on accounting rather than financial planning. As the company has grown, however, its offering has evolved — and Lifespan now represents a diverse range of client-focused financial planners. 

Mr Ardino’s father, John, started Lifespan back in 1994 after identifying a need for a privately-owned dealer group solution that supported the delivery of quality advice to more Australians.

Since joining Lifespan over 15 years ago and gaining extensive experience across the industry before taking the reins, Mr Ardino has also continued to stick to the values that drive the company and provide the pillars of support for advisers.

Lifespan has always prided itself on the certainty, flexibility, and simplicity that it offers to advisers, and this has not changed over the course of the past 28 years despite the many changes in the advice industry.

Simplicity is part of sharing the burden of regulatory change and providing straightforward and efficient processes.

Flexibility is about having an open architecture, where advisers have the freedom to choose the most appropriate software for their business and have access to a wide ranging approved product list. 

Certainty is about supporting advisers for the long term. 

“Advisers value the certainty that comes from being a part of one of the largest privately-owned communities,” Mr Ardino says.

“Certainty is becoming increasingly important, with many advisers having experienced significant turmoil in bank and institutionally-owned licensees. They are looking to make the move once, and know that the licensee isn’t going to merge/sell, or change significantly.”

Lifespan is all about connection and family

The saying “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is very true of the Lifespan team, according to Mr Ardino. 

The company operates a flat management structure and encourages accountability and innovation from all of the teams and prides itself on responsiveness, approachability, and being easy to deal with at every level of the business. 

“We value our advisers and treat them like family. We listen with empathy and prioritise their individual needs,” says Mr Ardino.

“Advisers, more than ever before, are seeking community and connection.”

“We refined the way that we communicate with our community — streamlining communication to ensure that we as a licensee, can get the right messages to our advisers. 

“We also hold regular adviser peer group sessions locally to bring advisers together for education, but also the opportunity to share with other advisers both their challenges and their achievements.”

Continuous support to meet future challenges

Looking ahead to a new future in the advice industry, Mr Ardino says that the company looks to continue to improve the infrastructure and support for advisers to provide quality advice to their clients.

The company has more recently been focusing on its investment committee infrastructure and taking a more hands-on approach in the practice development space.

“We have always had a sharp focus on ways to enhance the service that our advisers can provide to their clients. In 2004 we recognised the important role that managed accounts would have in the future of advice, and successfully applied for our MDA licence,” says Mr Ardino. 

“The Lifespan MDA and Managed Portfolio service has evolved and changed considerably with 30 portfolios now available, offering strategic, tactical, as well as blended solutions, made available on several leading platforms. 

“Brian Long joined us in 2021 to further develop this solution, and we have just recently announced the addition of Jonathan Pain to our investment committee, which we are excited about!”

Advocates for the emerging profession

Mr Ardino recognised that there has been no shortage of challenges for advisers and licensees, with the industry being in a never-ending cycle of increasing regulation.

The company has over the years always placed importance on listening to advisers, framing and structuring the business in the best way it can to support them.

“We’ve had to reinvent the way we do things a few times and we'll probably have to reinvent the way we do things in the next few years such as when the Quality of Advice Review recommendations get implemented,” Mr Ardino says. 

“From myself as CEO, through the rest of the team, we believe that there is value in voicing frustrations, perceived inequities, and potential solutions for issues such as advice affordability, financial literacy, adviser remuneration and broader compliance framework.”

“Whilst we strive to be advocates for our advisers, we also work hard to ensure that our advisers are advocates for Lifespan as well. Many of our new advisers have come to Lifespan on the recommendation of a Lifespan adviser. Our NPS score (66 in 2022) continues to be high, as does the overall satisfaction of our adviser community with the support that we provide.

“That has all been a very big part of our business and we will continue to strive to advocate for the advice community as a whole heading into the future.”