Emotion is the key to client engagement for financial planners, according to an AMP-owned financial advice group.
Hillross managing director Hugh Humphrey said clients had been forgotten in the compliance process.
"We have not stopped to take as much notice of the end-client as we should have, and who better to tell us than clients?" Humphrey said.
Hillross had surveyed clients from the start to the end of the financial planning process - and advisers knew they were being surveyed, unlike ASIC's shadow shopping.
In regards to statements of advice (SOA), he said "the number of times the clients refer to these was nowhere near what we expect or want".
"The SOA is a very technical document and may get in the way of clients' understanding. The link to their goals is not what you would expect," he said.
So, as part of a complete reframing and rebranding, Hillross had commissioned 100 black-and-white photos that portrayed images of clients' ideas of financial freedom - surfboards, beach houses, Tuscany, travel, novel writing, expensive cars.
Each adviser in the Hillross group would be able to use any of these in a client's SOA to customise it to that client, and present the information in as many ways as possible.
Thus, the first question a client would be asked was "what is your idea of financial freedom?" instead of a statement of "what we can't do for you - give you 2 per cent over the market", Humphrey said.
The first of the Hillross 'concept stores' will be the Hillross Sydney CBD practice, headed by Paul Heanly.
"We're looking for the long-term clients where it's a journey for both of us," Humphrey said.
"It's not piecemeal advice."
He said the group was aiming for aspirational clients.
