AdviceTech Podcast #40 – Care & Living with Mercer – Transcript

Peita Diamantidis
Hello, and welcome to the Ensombl AdviceTech Podcast. I’m Peita Diamantidis. And the guest joining me here today to deep dive into Care and Living with Mercer has actually worked in asset management in the UK, but in recent times has become passionate about elder care now society and I discovered was at Club Mac, I mean, Macquarie University many years ago when I was there to surviving actuarial studies. So thank you so much for joining me on the show, Will Burkitt.

Will Burkitt
Thanks, Peter. Thank you. That was 20 as well, right.

Peita Diamantidis
It was a long time ago.

Will Burkitt
Well, I think I only did one subject of actuarial studies. And then I go back to economics,

Peita Diamantidis
probably mathematics of finance that was that entry level one? Wasn’t it? 101? Rough. Listen, PTSD, about all of that. For me. What’s very tough. All righty. I’m keen to pick your brain about all things. Elder Care and what you guys at Mercer are doing. But first, let’s take a moment to get to know you a little better through your use of technology. What’s your most used emoji? Do you even use emojis?

Will Burkitt
I definitely use emojis. i It’s not dog paws. Although dog paws would come pretty close. It’s probably been grateful, actually. So the grateful hands. And I’ve been mindful at that.

Peita Diamantidis
Lovely. Well, that’s a nice friendly one. I love you know what, we might not have had that before on the show. So well done for bringing a bit of care and humanity onto the show. Thank you. If you then had to delete, I mean, we all live with our smartphones all the time that we have to delete everything off them and just have three apps on your smartphone. Which ones would you keep?

Will Burkitt
Yeah, okay. Definitely banking. I love online banking. Secondly, it would have to be Spotify. I couldn’t do without my music. Sam Cook Sundays, for example. No. And then thirdly, it would be maps. I love travel, looking overseas and dreaming about the next trip

Peita Diamantidis
me to I have actually love watching all the travel things and even the foodie things on the TV. And the whole time I have my phone ready to tag a place in Maps. And it’s like, what are you looking at? I’m like, I’m that place in Croatia. That place in Finland is like literally the restaurant. Yep. Ready for when we eventually get this? And we’re right there with you. I love it. All right, let’s dive into Karen living with Mercer. So this is a little different folks. So this is a yes, it’s an online service. And you’ll end up having your own URL. But just to give us a sense of, of what we’re talking about here. How did it come about? Where did this all start for you, but also for the business in terms of focusing on elder care and services that can help?

Will Burkitt
I I started on this journey about eight years ago. And actually I was a gatekeeper for investments and products supporting advisors within large wealth management businesses. And it was during that time, I read a Core Data survey that asked three questions. And the first was, do you find ageing, care or back then aged care? Complex? And 80% of respondents said yes. Would you like support for your aged care arrangements? And 80%? said yes. And then the third question was really illuminating. For me it it said, so where do you go for support? Or where would you go for support? And the top one was the local aged care provider, who was really well meaning but hopelessly conflicted. Yeah, you know, a residential aged care home, just around the corner is not going to say, well, actually, we think you are better at staying at home with care. So don’t come to us or go to the provider down the road. Yeah. Second is the government’s My Aged Care website, which has been regularly called out has been pretty substandard and occasionally difficult to navigate. Yeah. And then third is family and friends and daylight, daylight to advisors, employers super funds, there’s back then there was nothing available that for people and so that set me on this journey. I knew nothing about aged care industry or anyone and through LinkedIn, they go, yep, could have taken digital. I just built my network and my knowledge and business case, which led to care and living with Mercer. Yep. So and so.

Peita Diamantidis
I’m looking at so interesting, because there’s a lot more talk about this. And we were saying actually, before we hit record that it’s not a not it’s not a new thing, right that there is a need for understanding and insights and information for that stage of life. However, approaching it in a structured or proactive way. rather than it being reactive is probably the newest part, right? It’s something that I guess, historically, you know, somebody or their family reach a point where they’re going to have to do something, and then we react, and we just sort of act in the moment. Whereas what I really like about, what you guys are trying to do is, is, let’s start talking about it, preparing it for it and doing the dealing well ahead of when you’re going to need it, which, look, that’s always going to be a better option, right? This is just the pain, suffering and emotion that this can sort of save people from has got to be extreme, you must have seen that in the in the cases you guys have assisted with.

Will Burkitt
Yeah, we hear it all the time. And it starts with a person being on the phone with one of our care consultants. And often they’re in tears, and grateful because they just didn’t know where to start, let alone work their way through the putting your arrangements in place. It is highly emotional. Because of its complexity, it takes so much time. And it’s very difficult to make decisions that you have confidence in both because of the health outcomes. But also the financial outcomes as well. If you if you make a mistake here, it’s all highly expensive. Yeah. So the, I guess the impact is enormous in this space. And it is pretty amazing, as you said that it has been around for a long time. And our service is the only one of its kind in Australia, which which too, is surprising. I guess I reflect that. It’s probably because the demographics, has now probably reached a tipping point where baby boomers have been reaching 65 for 10 days. Now, the end, whilst it’s been this slow moving through a locomotive coming at us, many people have just ignored it. But I think we’re at that tipping point where it actually does impact a vast majority of our financial advisors, clients. Now it’s 70 80% of your client base. And actually, probably 90 95% of your client base is assets that are impacted by this.

Peita Diamantidis
Absolutely. And and, you know, it does fall into one of those topics. And I’m happy to be open in this sense, from my own perspective as an advisor of, of it feels like the biggest can of worms of all time, like it does feel like a topic that like, do I need four degrees to be able to even you know, have a conversation about like, there’s a hesitation there about wanting to do it well, and then knowing that this is a huge thing you topic you’re embarking on, and therefore there’s a lot of hesitation. Like I just think it’s natural, because we want to do the right thing. This is not avoidance, because we want to not help the client. It’s almost like, Oh, that feels huge. So I’m interested. So I’m guessing that you guys started very much focused to the end consumer, the end, you know, the end client, and the solution started that way. And then clearly, it’s evolved into something where you’re partnering with advisors, to sort of assist, can you talk me through how that came about?

Will Burkitt
Oh, I’d love to. It’s interesting, but your guesses wrong. So whilst that core data survey was aimed at the end consumer, I was also influenced at the time by reading the Edelman Trust Barometer, and of institutions. And it really got me exploring who are the key institutions, so to speak in people’s lives. So rather than direct to consumer or all I set about in creating this service, but then also working with financial advisors with superfunds with employer, employees, and these communities that as individuals that we spend so much time and importance connected with, so why can’t they help for also aging care needs as well. And so, so that’s our model we we fit perfectly with financial advisors, because so calm or care and living with Mercer, calm. It’s an advice service for aging care for an Australian or adult child supporting an Australian, and it covers anything from living at home with care through to retirement, living retirement village, residential aged care or even end of life preparation. Yeah, and when you think about a person, second half of life, from mid 60s through to a hypothetical 100 That’s 35 years. And during that 35 years, Daikon have three to five key moments where they need new or evolved aged care needs. Yeah. And it may start in the late 60s or early 70s With a bit of support at home. And that may then morph into moving out of the big family home and into a retirement village or, or a smaller place without stairs, for example. And then it morphs into maybe a homecare package that starts on a low means, or evolves to high beings or moving into residential aged care and ultimately, in the life, every single one of those three to five key moments is tough. What we were talking about before the emotion involved the the difficulty in making decisions with confidence, the financial aspects. And therein lies the opportunity for advisors. Because as you said, Most advisors don’t ask their clients be they clients who are 65 years and over and probably more directly having to need em, or their adult children who made it 40 to 65. Yeah, advisors don’t ask because of I think two reasons. One, there’s just so much to know, as an advisor, that too, then and aging care into your knowledge base is just too difficult. There’s just too much to take on. So to be that subject matter experts, very tough. Secondly, I think advisors find it difficult to monetize their time in this space. Yeah, as well. And so most advisors don’t ask a client who’s 50? You know, do you have parents who have aging care needs? Or a client? Who’s 65? Do you have ageing candidates for yourself? Because they don’t want to get the answer. Yes. And so what calm does is we’re nonfinancial where 80% of the problem for people, and that’s understanding the system, what are the options? How do you work through putting arrangements in place. And at the right time, through that new arrangement process, we will work hand in glove with the adviser who then provides the financial advice via cash flow modeling and assets, and so on for Centrelink, and so on. So we’re perfectly complementary for advisors, but it allows the adviser to then ask, okay, so, you know, do you have aging care needs? Or do your parents or grandparents have aging care needs? And if they get it, yes, back, then they say, Okay, well, let me introduce you to Karen living with Mercer, for a very cheap, transparent cost. And the adviser is generating new advice opportunities, because with each one of those, the client is going to need that cash flow and an asset, financial advice, which, arguably, the advisor wasn’t capturing those opportunities in the past.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, I completely agree. And I think, you know, if any of the listeners out there, haven’t witnessed up close this process, then, you know, in, and I can, of course, only speak to, you know, being you know, my friends and I have been the adult children of somebody that’s going through that age range. It might be all consuming for the person going through it, but I can tell you, it’s all consuming for their adult kids to like, this is not a this is not something on the side, you know, this is this can be every waking moment that you’re not working, you are trying to address having conversations about dealing with trying to fit in a call to this, like it’s a it is, is a very difficult challenge. And so, as advisors, what what I like about this is, as advisors, if we’ve got other things we’re trying to get those adult adult kids to pay attention to, if we don’t have a way to help with this, then there’s going to be a period where we can’t get their attention at all to be quite frank, because naturally, they’re just caught up. Like it’s just it really is all consuming. So I think you know, I love the idea of having confidence about a place that you can send them to who do this all the time. And you know that that repetition is really valuable. I think people would reel off thank goodness this is somebody who will have seen somebody go through this absolutely like I think you know that is so important and impartial you know somebody impartial they they’re not going to worry about you know what your mom thinks about this or what that like all of those dynamics, they’re going to worry because they want to help but not because they have any skin in the game. Right? There’s no there’s no bias to them, which is I think really helpful in this situation. Is to have like something like you guys where you can look, we’re just going to help find you find the right solution for the situation. So

Will Burkitt
absolutely and powerful. Because I, because I came from your world, I Oh, another principle that we have for calm is that we’re completely independent, we take no commissions from any referrals, right. And if there’s a successful arrangement with, with an aged care provider, we don’t get any commission or a back. There’s some other models out there for care concierge that typically do have that are commission based model. But it does lead to conflicts and should be banned. But the aged care industries has got so many issues at the moment, they haven’t quite got to the conflict and independence one yet, calm is completely independent.

Peita Diamantidis
And I think the other thing that’s interesting about it, and this way that this is where the text starts, folks, so So what I like to is, instead of the first step being interfacing with a human being whether it’s on the phone, or whatever it is, which is confronting for anybody, even the adult kids, we’re gonna have an appointment to talk about whatever is giving them the opportunity to fill in some information online and get a report that’s going to give them an even almost like a, it’s almost like a program designed for them to step through the understanding of what they need to learn and, and how all this works. It’s a lovely, non invasive, less than passive passively start this journey without being too confrontational. So I think that’s a clever way to start for, you know, providing assistance so that they can build a bit of confidence before even they bring it up with mom and dad, you know, they’ll have some, they’ll be armed with information.

Will Burkitt
We are all about trying to make something very complex as simple as possible, particularly if it’s if it’s actually a 65 year old or older. Who is the client? Yep. Because often they are less tech savvy, and trying to follow the aged care system is incredibly complex. So the digital tool is so critical in that simplification, but also it allows us to personalize the experience. So we can provide a plan with actions specific to the person or the family’s circumstances. And then it is human LED. So we have care consultants who are say occupational therapists, trained as aging care experts, but they’re behind the scenes. And so if the client asks for a review of their plan, by answering a few questions around their preferences, aging preferences, which could be location based, but also cultural or language based, for example, or diversity based will add new actions into their plan. And so from a technological perspective, they can go into their roadmap at any time of day, they can share it with their family. So it’s a true family solution as well. So that, that, that that website, that tool is critical to allow the family to use it at the time and the manner they want to. But it also helps us keep the cost low, as well, back costs are served. And it’s critical that people who can’t afford 567 $1,000 A year have had these roadmaps for a very, very cheap price.

Peita Diamantidis
So let’s sort of step through that we’ll step through it from the the end sort of client or consumer first, and then we can talk about what that means for the practice. But so the and whether it’s the individual themselves, or their kids can go to a landing page, fill in some details, that initial detail actually is quite spear, isn’t it for that first initial sort of draft outline. It’s just a handful of things. Three questions, three questions, right. So we get that early stage, and then they get some, you know, initial response, that sort of some information and then it sort of can dive into some more layered questions. What’s interesting to me about the roadmap you’re talking about, which is almost the output of that is, it’s really granular, like it’s, this is not G in the best world for the whole of Australia, this might be the general way you approach this, like, this is not what you guys have come up with it’s, it’s down to postcode level, hey, where you’re saying you want to be these are the things that might be possible. Once your care consultants have had the opportunity to do that digging and refined it. Is that correct? If I describe that,

Will Burkitt
absolutely. Yep. So we will be able to provide three referrals for homecare service or residential aged care or retirement village in regional Victoria, who may have Italian speaking carers For example, or dementia Ward, and our care consultants will also be able to check whether there’s accessibility. And so by that, I mean, not from a disability perspective, but more the workforce in aged care at the moment is very short. And so providers may say they support a certain city or town regional center. But actually they don’t, because they don’t have the workers. And so as, as advocates for your clients, we check on that. And that forms part of our referral service. And we can recover anywhere in Australia. Yeah, this model.

Peita Diamantidis
So So what’s interesting is we in terms of what you’ve then even those steps, so that’s before, those are the client hasn’t spoken to any member of your team. At that point. They’ve answered some questions, the team of the machine has come up with a response, the team have been tailored a bit with a bit of digging, they haven’t spoken to a human however, they now have, I mean, the hours saved for the client in digging. I mean, do you guys have a sense of that? Do you have any feel for how much time you may have saved someone to even just get them to that point?

Will Burkitt
We feel it’s already 50% of the time required to that point, they still need to work through the process and the actions, but we’ve already said 50% of the time. But it’s it’s probably it’s time, and many people just drop out and don’t do anything because they’re like, you know, deer in the headlights, and they don’t know where to start. Yeah. So it’s also just helping people have the confidence to step through the door and start that journey as well. Yeah, the sooner you do it, the better. Because if you don’t, whether it’s for yourself or partner or parents, it, it can have some real outcomes around at worst death, or health deterioration or monetary impact.

Peita Diamantidis
And I do and I completely agree. And I and I, you know, having had these conversations and had it with friends, we were talking through G, we’re struggling to have these conversations, you know, say their parents had all sorts of reasons. Having this information can circumvent because the individual is doubting a lot, too. They’re uncertain, and they don’t know what’s going on and unsure if you can at least respond that Oh, yes, this is possible. And hey, they have like you’re saying Italian speaking, oh, you know, so it, it can take away a whole lot of that fear. So that then you can get down to the real fear, which can be a whole lot of other things as well. Right. So it lets you demonstrate, I think, for a family member, a great deal of care of understanding and, and how we’ve managed to get this far. And now let’s just talk about this, and we’re not in a hurry, we’ve thought of it ahead of time, which is gonna give you time to think it through. But you know, what, we’ve managed to knock off a whole lot of this thinking. So I think there’s, I think it could be really empowering for families to be able to go on this journey. well ahead of time, and, and let them feel like they are contributing. I think that’s the other challenge is, sometimes it just feels like you’re banging your head against a brick wall trying to dig this stuff out. Right? It’s frustrating. And you can feel a bit stupid, like, like, why can I work this out? Like, it seems like this should be obvious, but it’s just, you know, not getting anyway. So, you know, to feel good about the contribution you’re making. I think it’s really powerful. So they’ve got their, their personalized roadmap that gives them a length that then they can be sharing with maybe their other siblings, if that’s their kids or their partner, if it’s somebody going through it. So that’s that step. Then, of course, they can chat to somebody if they’ve got questions. So correct.

Will Burkitt
They can, they can, and they may not even know the right pathway at the start before they create a roadmap so they can chat to either on the phone or book a meeting. And the meeting is often used, interestingly, by adult children who may book a week in advance, and they have mum and dad with them on the zoo. So it can be a family affair then. But once the roadmaps run or a particular action within a roadmap, the person and family can contact our care consultants to talk through the whole plan in its entirety or a particular aspect of that. And it might be, you know, they’re up to the stage where they have to engage My Aged Care for an assessment for a home care package and run, you know, what questions am I going to get? What exactly am I asking for? How do I avoid errors that’s going to add months to this process? For example. More importantly, we don’t just cover the task and the process aspects but we also support people for the emotional behavioral aspects. And a classic example that I’ll give you is helping an adult child who has concerns about mum or dad’s deterioration. But yeah, mom and dad are all mum, let’s say Mum, fiercely independent, really wants to maintain her dignity and has a big case of aging denial, yes, doesn’t want to hear anything from her daughter or some. And so we help, how to have that conversation when to have that conversation. And so these behavioral aspects are just as important. And I know that for advisors, it’s exactly the same for you, when you’re working with clients. It’s not just about tasks and processes are no,

Peita Diamantidis
no, not at all. And, in fact, we can be you can be as right as you like, you can, you can have 100% hit rate on answering the correct and coming up with the perfect advice and do all those things. But if you can’t handle the behavioral elements, none of that stuff gets implemented. I mean, we’ve all learnt that the hard way, right? It’s, it’s all about the behavioral and if where it’s so interesting, because if we’re really honest with ourselves, most of us are resisting what aging means. Most of us are now it’s not, that’s not vanity, that’s just no surely know what I mean, I feel like our brains lag a good 10 to 15 years in terms of acknowledging the age we are, it’s like, our birthdays are a surprise every year like really nobody that I think just that’s a perfectly normal response. So if you project that forward, then it’s natural, that, you know, our parents, and our elders are feeling the same way. It’s the same experience, it’s just, you know, a bit further alone. And the other thing, I think, that we need to acknowledge is, you know, they potentially witnessed with their parents or their grandparents, we don’t know what they’ve witnessed of the way people have handled it or, or were cared for or not cared for. So, you know, there’s a lot of history and imprinting about this stuff that’s going on, that can be part of why they’re resistant. You know, it’s

Will Burkitt
so true. Take taking that into account. And it was a pretty bad experience, almost certainly for past generations. And yes, there’s a lot of focus on aging care now. And it’s getting better into the future. And so the experience will be better, but that imprint that you talk about, of what happened in the past, pretty horrific for most people, it is right to someone’s face,

Peita Diamantidis
and, you know, blind, you know, that is not going to happen to me, you know, like, I’m not letting that happen. And fair enough. But unfortunately, we need tools to help us handle those conversations, because sometimes that can put them in a worse position, you know, that resistance can actually mean that they’re not taking proactive steps that could help them out that actually could make them more active and more, you know, full of life than they otherwise would be. So it’s

Will Burkitt
your That’s the irony of this. If, if we accept support, earlier, it’s not about how God had been incompetent to look after yourself and losing that independence, it’s actually enabling you to go and live a great quality of life with a little bit of extra support. And so that’s the ironic situation that we face,

Peita Diamantidis
it’s so is. So that’s sort of your feedback speaking to one of the consultants they have, that’s all part of that fixed dollar fee, isn’t it? So it’s sort of this is what you get, you get the roadmap, and then you get this person that you can sort of get feedback on or clarify things or, or get that, you know, bit of visual assistance. So but there’s also then another level of service. And an interesting example that remember, your team mentioned was, you know, you might, you might, you know, the clients, kids might be overseas or, or, you know, there can be all sorts of reasons that were separated from the people we’re trying to care for, in distance. And so talk me through that level service where you guys sort of can take take on a more active role.

Will Burkitt
So the service we’ve talked about so far is our guidance and advice service with the digital portal and roadmaps and unlimited access to care consultants. But we still ask for the client to carry out the action. So we will recommend three homecare providers, but you’ve still got to including contact details of those providers, but you still have to interview the providers decide which one you want. And you can sense check that with our consultants. If you’re emotionally overwhelmed or time poor. And you really need to finish the process as quickly as possible, or just your well being in support or obviously your parents then you can engage our care consumer concierge service and that’s where we do as much of the activities with you as we can And that’s the really high touch service. And that’s where say a plan and placement, we will conduct care needs assessment with a care plan that we agree and then that care plan allows us to propose a number of providers are going to organize interviews or tours, or the providers actually conduct those with you help with decision making, and then putting, you know, making the move. And we also then check in for a month or two afterwards to make sure that it’s gone well, so that that very high touch service, I think our record is about a month. So nothing’s nothing’s, you know, a week long. But that’s, that’s starting from scratch for a residential aged care placement. But typically, it’ll take a couple of months. Now, if someone or a family were to try and do that, by themselves, typically, we would see that taking three months, but often, person would have to either take time off or even quit work to do that. But more typically six to nine months, sorry, the time the well being, and the financial aspects are enormous men more than pays for the fee for service of that care concierge.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, and I think, you know, this, because there’s two levels of care here isn’t there. So there’s certainly the individual going through it, who is looking for their next home, or the look of the next place that they’re going to go live and hopefully enjoy, but it’s also the family who are going through that too. And that’s a juggling act. And and you can often I’m, well, you need to tell me, but I’m, I’m betting that often there’s a one of the family who ends up being sort of the primary one that’s involved, just just because that’s natural, and is different for every family, but there’ll be one, that’s the one that’s generally involved, and the weight of that responsibility, all of the activities, like you say, may have to take time off work, you know, all that sort of stuff can be heavy, you know, and that comes down to the well being then like this can really, really get people get ill all sorts of things. So to have a service that they will, okay, I can weigh up the cost of that and go Well, we can get all these great support. And it may mean it doesn’t drag on nearly as long either. You know, wow, I’m betting the people that are just yet where do I sign like?

Will Burkitt
It is typically one person, and most often, that’s a daughter. And if I had to get really granular, it’s often the eldest daughter, or daughter in law, as well, who takes on that sort of coordinator or the chief family Officer role at the CFO role? Yeah, but then, siblings always have an opinion as well. And so they could lean in and, you know, create a bit of havoc and then step away, whilst the chief family officers left, they’re trying to coordinate it all from Mum and Dad. The other thing to consider with that wellbeing aspect is if say, Dad needs he’s had a health issue and needs new arrangements. Mom, it’s her well being as well, she doesn’t necessarily need to move somewhere or care in. But she can’t actually look after the her partner properly herself. And it’s extremely stressful for her as well. So there’s all these dynamics going on, and every individual every family is different to to Abbott’s?

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, absolutely. So sort of, that’s the breadth of then the sort of end user for whatever better. I mean, that’s the textbook, right? User Experience, let’s talk about then advisors that become sort of the partner with you guys, then there’s talk me through that experience, and the tools that you have available to sort of a both introduce a practice to this as a concept, but also, you know, sort of make it a core element of what they provide.

Will Burkitt
We, so we, we have quite a few advisors as clients already and can suggest a number of models for the advisor to consider so depends on their practice at their client base. And so some advisors really are using COMM As a revenue growth tool opportunity, creating advice, opportunities that they didn’t have before. So that’s fantastic. Some are seeing it as a retention tool and just passing on the low cost without any markup. And some, even some dealer groups are absorbing the cost as well, but it’s it’s it’s rare and increasingly rare. But typically, the model is for advisors to pass the cost on the client, but probably with a bit of a markup. Yep. And also a new one. Advice opportunity. Yeah, then how will you help and work with the advisor is? There’s, it’s where does it fit within the client? Service? Model? Yes. How do you position this service relative to your other skill sets and services as well, because for most advisors, this is a new variant or an entirely new service. The if I, if I leave one message for advisors who are listening, it is that this is not aged care, right? I’ve tried very hard not to use the words aged care, because for us advisors, aged care, really refers to the last 18 months of someone’s life as they’re moving into residential aged care. And advisors who are aged care specialists have traditionally really only provided funding advice into residential aged care, where I’m talking about a 35 year aging journey with those three to five key moments, which are new advice, opportunities, through that journey. And so as, as we as professionals have been grappling with, how do we service someone through their retirement as well as we’ve service them through their accumulation years, here is a key opportunity. So and, you know, insurance, people don’t take insurance after 65. This is a form of insurance, as well as then supporting family and that intergenerational aspect as well. So helping advisors, we help advisors think about how to position this within their service model for their client base. Of course, we have all of the content, whether they have their own website, or emails, or scripts, when they’re on the phone, advisors can sit through doing a roadmap with their clients, or give the link to the client to do on their own and come back. We also have one to one, training and contact center for advisors, as well. So particularly with Jack who actually came from My Aged Care contact center three years ago, and so he’s he’s definitely moved move beyond that to be a true Calm, calm, right. But we provide that one to one support for advisors, as well as then the advisors clients, we have webinars, we had the example of an advisor in Western Australia who invited to our last webinar 70 of their clients and 45 actually attended the webinar, we were focused on what government support is available across the spectrum. And so it’s really resonating. And so out of that this advisor, you know, he generated at least 10 New advice, opportunities with existing clients that he wouldn’t have had before. So yeah, it’s, it’s really up to each advisor and their practice as to how they position position, and we’ve got all of the content and expertise to support you.

Peita Diamantidis
And in terms of then, you know, in partnership, then my understanding is, so the practice then gets its own unique version of the euro, well, where they send clients in terms of, you know, getting a roadmap. So it’s still, it’s still connected in terms of the client seeing it as part of your business in that, you know, in that sense, it’s, it’s sort of not seeing them off to run off you go do your thing, you know, it’s sort of can still be folded into what you’re doing, which I think is powerful. And so then I’m curious actually about, I mean, I know this is not 1000s of practices, you’re in doing this just yet, but what do you see that the practices have done that worked really well like who really nails this in terms of folding you into what they’re doing for their clients?

Will Burkitt
It is the it is the practice who does look a little bit more holistically in terms of their support of clients. And but doesn’t but but he’s happy to outsource parts of it and in effect, that’s what advisors would be doing with calm for that non financial aging journey aspects. So really, it’s It’s nothing. It’s not rocket science. I think the the biggest blocker, if that’s potentially where you lead next is, advisors are busy. And they’ve got well established procedures and services and taking a breather to think about a change to that service model and how to add this new new service in is often the blocker as well. But yeah, it is to the detriment of of revenue and better client. So cohort. And when you think about the aging demographics, it’s, you’ve got to ask yourself, can I afford not to do this rather than can I afford to this?

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah. And like you say, it’s this is, because this is a journey over time, like 35 years, then it’s going to come up multiple times. But this is because they’re going to go through the different stages. So. So I guess what I’m hearing is, therefore, they could re connect again. So it could be that they’ve done one they’ve paid for that one initial experience, it could be a 10 years down the track, this sort of entering another phase, then they could revisit and speak to, you know, the comm consultant, get that, you know, update the roadmap or change the roadmap roadmap based on where they’re at, you know, like is that the way that you guys see this working?

Will Burkitt
Absolutely, lifelong customers, for sure. And I guess, the, I’m going to call it the spaghetti bowl of family networks as well. And so if, if a client’s husband and wife are clients, and they may have done something for the husband’s parents, next, it could be the wife’s parents or grandparents, you just never know, where a family is touched by this aging journey, and where their new opportunities come from. And so it’s not just new opportunities with existing clients, but new clients as well. Come out of this.

Peita Diamantidis
Fantastic. And then is there any element? Do you see that that, or? I mean, it’s fairly clear from an advice practice that it’s about, you know, sending people to the roadmap, and then potentially even making them aware of the full concierge option? Is there anything you think that advisors haven’t taken advantage of, you know, of what you guys provide or all the tools you give them just yet that they could dig even further on that you’d like all that feels like a gem that more advisors could be doing that you’ve got currently partnering with you.

Will Burkitt
Within, I’d probably highlight our Information Library, which is, which is within the, within the website, the digital tool. So this Information Library is in addition to the roadmaps and the actions and the consultants, and it’s got roughly 250 pages of deep dive information, including actually financial agent care related financial information. So homecare packages, there’s four levels, and here’s roughly how much money you can expect, for example. And so advisors, if they’re curious, can dive down one of those rabbit holes to learn more themselves and equip themselves as to not be the aged care expert, but just to know a little bit more, and particularly if they choose to say do roadmaps with clients together, virtually or in person. So probably that Information Library is a real sort of gem. We don’t promote it on the homepage. And there’s a reason for that we started promoting on my homepage, and we removed it, because one of the problems for people when they’re going through an aging care arrangement is that there’s information overload, the complexity is enormous. And so we’re trying to make complex simple. And we found by promoting the Information Library that some of the users were going into the library and just getting completely overwhelmed and stopping the process. So it’s a tab in the website, but we don’t promote it as part of the roadmap, we actually have que added links in some of the actions through to the library where it makes sense. But we’ve done the heavy lifting and curated those links for people. If advisors want it as professionals, then that library is there for them.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah. And I do think, you know, that that’s the sort of genius for me of what what you guys brought together is that, that journey, that curated journey, you’ve created, like that’s that, like, we that’s what you’re paying for, that’s what the client is paying for. Is that. So you know, absolutely helping them step through that. And I guess the question or the comment, I’d say is, it’s, and I’m seeing this more in lots of parts of advice is I think, advisors for some of these situations are becoming going to become more like coaches than they are advisors. It’ll be facilitating the discussion with the adult kids, it’ll be helping them answer the questions in the, you know, their first go at the roadmap and talking through how they feel like what does that make? Does that make sense? Or does it like it’s, there’s going to be a lot of facilitation and coaching in these things that that probably we’re all gonna have to brush up your skills on, to be honest because it is, it’s not that technical part. It’s being there as a guide or even a sidekick, you know, on this journey that can and sort of helped them along. So you know, that is something I guess a bit different to offer this this sort of journey? Totally. So let’s look forward a bit is there anything, you know, plans on on on the horizon, anything coming up that you guys are developing or, or changing or adjusting to the service and the tool?

Will Burkitt
The piece that we’re working on at the moment is more videos, and more communication with our customers. So the US, as well, we, we will communicate with people sort of through using the roadmap. But they’ve asked for more video content and more engaging sort of ways than what we’ve already got. So that’s definitely something we’re working on. Look, when you think about it into the future. There’s an there’s a lot of opportunities, and maybe we consider disability care. Advice Service into the future? Not quite yet. They’re two very different systems. So we, we’d have to give that consideration. But at the moment, the aging care, support services is enormous. And we’re just trying to build in a build the snowball of how we help Australians through financial advisors, hopefully, I would say that there was, so when you think about the big macro trend, no guess the federal government, we’re so the aged care royal commission called out that really, for the aged care system, they need to focus on three key areas. One is quality and safety for the resident, the person using it. Secondly, is workforce. And the government and the industry has started to tackle those two, and most recently, with the Fair Work tribunal and the government funding 15% pay rise for aged care workers. The one that nobody has really wanted to tackle is how to fund the system. Because it is underfunded. Yeah. And significantly four days ago. So on the 28th of May, the government released a draft strategy paper called the National care and support economy strategy. And within there, they’ve called out four key areas of our society that they’re, I guess, creating a national debate around how do we fund these, and these four areas are aged care, disability care, childcare and veteran’s support. So, the government is acknowledging here that there are so many people impacted in these areas, they are costing the budget allocation so much, but they’ve actually even that funding today from the government is not enough to keep the system working well. Yeah, so they’re acknowledging, I guess, you know, in a way, that’s not too confronting, that we as a society have to solve for this funding crisis, the only way that they’re going to be funded more is with individuals paying more government can’t keep taxing, and we know that they can’t keep increasing allocations to these areas, as well as defense as well as debt on your interest on debt, so on and so forth. So people, our clients are gonna have to pay more into the future, or for aging care, disability care, childcare, depending on what what they’re touched by. And rather than if they’re not taxed more, how do they pay for that? And so this is, so an advisor is likely to have more of a role in this respect into the future as well. We don’t know what the new model will be. And it could, it could be the primary home asset is is pouring more into the asset test. Or it could be the unused Superannuation is used more for aging care. Yeah, whatever the model is, I really think there’s a great opportunity coming up for advisors to help clients because they’re going to have to pay more guaranteed.

Peita Diamantidis
Yeah, and and because it’s not something that any and I’m not talking about advisors think about I mean, the individual thinks he thinks about because it’s off, even if it’s only really 10 years off, or five years off, it’s it’s way off, right. It’s it’s way off. Then the financial decisions, they’re making our ignoring that factor. Yeah. And that’s part of when you talk about funding as you were saying that I’m thinking well a bit like superannuation and you know, the SGC and all these sort of things that were put in place. That was funding that was funding for retirement. And what they were doing was forcing us to think about it earlier. Now, they they made it much earlier, because it’s all part of as soon as you start working, but it was a mechanism. That meant there was an awareness of that need. And if you compared 40 years ago to now a conversation with somebody in their 30s, about retirement, I mean, I’m betting that 40 years ago, somebody in their 30s, wouldn’t even have had that conversation, like it just wouldn’t necessarily have even been on the radar. Whereas through these sorts of debates, and then putting in place mechanisms, you become something that then people are aware, they’re going to have to think about so. So I’d imagine that’s part of these two is, okay, that’s great. But there could be a decision now about downsizing or like all sorts of things could play into that future thing that you’re going to need to fund. Yep. Yeah. So I’m with you in terms of advisors educating themselves on on that factor. So that we can either assist, or and I guess, assist, yes, with the advice, but also facilitating the conversations early enough. So that people can be more ready for this. And, and it’s not, I guess, the hard thing is it it? It can sound a bit like doomsday prepping like it’s, oh, you’re talking about the worst thing happening? It’s like no, actually what we’re talking about the best thing as in longevity? That’s exactly what we’re talking about. Yeah, that’s

Will Burkitt
exactly right. And you know, it’s your past didn’t have that long, Jim. No. Fantastic, you know, we’ve got that 35 year aging journey, let’s make the most of it.

Peita Diamantidis
Correct? Correct. Yeah, it’s super easy to make money last when it doesn’t have to last long. Right? It’s not the hard task. It’s the it’s the loan term, that’s much, much tougher. Is there anything else that we’ve missed in terms of the service or, or what you guys do when you partner with advisors?

Will Burkitt
No, I think I think that’s a great start. We’re looking forward to advisor ideas, you know, everyone’s got a different approach and different ideas. And that’s how opportunities evolve. So you know, we’ve, we’ve definitely got something that’s unique and innovative with care and living with Mercer. And we’re encouraging advisors to start to think a bit differently in this space, but we’re also learning from advisors ideas, as well. So just looking forward to more and more conversations, and preparing for that impact across our society.

Peita Diamantidis
Perfect. All right, advice, explorers. If you’d like to find out more about caring living with Mercer, then the website link is in the episode show notes, along with Will’s LinkedIn details, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you just nudge him on LinkedIn, he will point you to the member of the team that can follow up and have that first conversation about how your practice may engage with them. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. And caring, I mean, that’s sort of an I love that that’s in the name, but caring enough that we can, you know, you can pull together a service that will help us help them, you know, which is ultimately how we can sort of lift up more Australians going through that retirement journey. So thank you so much for your time.

Will Burkitt
Thanks, Peita. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Peita Diamantidis
So I you are a current partner of Care and Living with Mercer? I’m betting probably not most listeners, I think won’t have necessarily embarked on this journey just yet. It is sort of only utilized in a small space in financial advice, currently. But I know that I definitely would love to hear your experience and what you found worked for you, you know how you managed to really elevate the experience for your clients. So please head over to the ensemble, community platform, as we’d all love to hear your take, you know, suggestions, alternatives, any ideas you have? That’s my thoughts on this. I think this is a good example of, you know, solutions that we can discover, when we really get to the bottom of what is keeping our clients up at night. And, you know, we can ask that question with a lot of loading, you know, and what worries you about money or you know, we always sort of anchor it back to money. Whereas, I think if you can ask that question, have those conversations, do a bit almost of market research of your client base, whichever it is, whatever group it is, whatever demographic, we’re at whatever location and really understand what what big challenges you’re facing right now. What are you You know, what is keeping you up at night? What’s driving you nuts, what’s taking you off, you know, your focus away, then there will be a lot of demographics that this issue is a challenge for and it won’t just be those of us with clients over 65 over 70, you know, over 80, it’s going to be 40 year olds challenge, you know, facing this, it’s going to be 30 year olds facing it for their grandparents potentially. So understanding what’s really worrying them. And then thinking about, you know, partnerships, we can make content, we can get tools, we can, we can put in front of them to assist with that, even if it isn’t necessarily financial advice, it’s just helping them in their journey, right, we’re just helping them deal with the moment in front of them, and provide resources that might make that just that little bit easier. I think there’ll be more and more of these types of things for different parts of life. But, you know, I’ve actually chatted to an advisor who when doing that digging in their client base, discovered a lot of them were in the throes of they’re much younger, they they’re in the throes of, of considering whether they, you know, there’s a pay rise they should be getting, and how do I even bring it up with an employer? And, and how does that conversation go? And what should I do? And what’s reasonable? And so, you know, working with somebody who could come up with some scripts for them, who could you know, running a webinar to help them talk through how you bring that up? And, and what to set? You know, what to respond with? When your boss? Is this, that sort of stuff? So is it technically in the financial advice category? No, but it is definitely going to hit their finances, isn’t it, it’s, you know, they managed to negotiate a pay rise. And then there’s sort of interesting things you could assist them with there to make sure they optimize the value of that. But it comes from a place of taking out what we can do for them, specifically, out of the picture and just go, Hey, what’s bothering you, you know, like, what’s the thing that you like, or right, so I know we’re doing that for our practice and the people we want to serve. And I’d love to hear your stories of what you’ve discovered what surprised you, and what you ended up trying to find a solution for, so that you could put that in front of your clients. Now, as you know, there’s only one skill we need to become bionic advisors, superheroes, really, and that’s avid curiosity. And so, to help you build that habit, today’s curiosity corner app that I wanted to take you to take a look at is called stream yard, you can find it at stream yard.com. That’s str eamyard.com. Now at first look, and certainly, you know, the labeling on the packaging. This is a tool you can use for live streaming video to multiple social media platforms, whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, all sorts of places, you doing one live video session can be pushed out to all of those places live, this could be you presenting on a topic, it could be interviewing someone or most more than one someone’s hosting a panel, it can be all sorts of things that can be live streamed to all those platforms. And once set up with your accounts and everything set up properly, then stream yard, as you’re doing that live video, then it feeds back the comments and questions during the live stream into their tools. So you can see them as they pop up. You don’t need to be trying to monitor all those different places online, it comes through the comments there. And in fact, if there’s a comment, you think, or a question, that’s really great, you can even have that pop up on screen into the video itself. Which is fantastic. Like all those things are great, but you’re not picked up on the live streaming, it can’t be serious, like that’s why down the list of things that, you know, I’ve got to get done. What’s interesting is what actually got my attention and I’ve been using it actually for a number of years now is the level of branding and design, they let you add to the stream. So you can have a background image, whether it’s a funky graphic, or it’s a photo or whatever it is behind you. So that fills the screen and then you know, the talking heads are sort of you know further in as part of that, that you know, as boxes within that you can have the color of the banner popups the color of the name that appears below the person talking. All of this can be designed as you know, a branding exercise. And so for me what it meant was, I now use the tool I’ve got, you know different different versions of videos I you know, pull together pre recorded videos these are that I want to look a certain way so I’ve got those set up as sort of templates in the tool. And I can record videos that then don’t need any editing once I’m done. So I can just download and post it because it all looks good, right? It’s just all formatted the way you might do post recording a video often people will then load it up into something and give it an outline and give it again in the pop opts in the all that sort of stuff. So this is all done in the tool. So I just, you know, to me, that’s another point of friction or barrier that’s just been dropped away. They’ve also actually added a webinar function, which I mean, we can do webinars anywhere, this is just a good looking one, right? Because all of those functions I just described, and the branding and the look and good you can do in the webinars. So if somebody asks a question during a webinar, then of course, people can see that, you know, attendees can see that in the pop up. But you can actually select that question and have it pop up as a banner on the screen. So if people watch this later, they’ll also get to see that question, and then you can talk to it, which I think is really powerful. So for a really inexpensive tool to be honest, it can do a lot of the heavy lifting, to make your recorded videos, your live videos, your webinars look and feel really great. And so check it out. And I’d love to hear whether you’ve actually used the tool and how you found it. Well, that’s all we’ve got for this week, folks, be sure to subscribe to the podcast. So you’ll get your advice, tech fix automatically sent to you each Friday. And if you’re, you know, middle of the year, you’re stuck in a bit of a rut in terms of the processes and tech projects for the practice. Maybe you want to take a bit of a step back, do some planning for the next 12 or 18 months, then I would love to facilitate a brainstorming session for you and the team, drawing out the next best projects for the business, what tech might assist, how you can all work together and keep on innovating as a habit in the practice. So please reach out to me on LinkedIn or on the ensemble platform. And you can find me on LinkedIn at Peita M D PEITA M D. Otherwise, I’ll look forward to turning up in your earbuds next week. And remember advice explores: Stay curious.