Helping advisers into the Green Zone: Geoff Rimmer on his new venture

Ray and I have often talked about working together but the timing never seemed quite right. A few months ago he called me to say he had an idea and that this was our opportunity. We both share similar values when it comes to the professionalisation of advice in Australia. It's hard to see this happening with conflicted advice models, so we want to be the change that helps deliver it. The inspiration for the GreenZone name came late one night; its the conflict free zone in Afghanistan!

We both have a pretty good track record in positioning businesses to take advantage of emerging trends and turning them in to successful businesses for the people we serve. We see the move to a conflict free business model as a logical step in future proofing your business. It does take good planning and execution - we help create the road map.

Ultimately, GreenZone will be a successful community of very successful professional advisers that access all the benefits of scale without the conflict of any alignment to institutions, manufacturers or production targets. We will deliver our programs in a group environment and to individual businesses.

We noticed that one of the fastest growing trends is self licensing. We support the move away from the vertically integrated system as a big first step towards conflict free advice, however when we looked a little deeper, we found a high fail rate. Looking at ASIC data last financial year, one AFSL was handed back for every three that were issued which is a very expensive mistake.

The problem is that the only way an adviser could find out if self licensing was right for them was to jump right in. We thought it would good if there was some way you could "try before you buy"! The master class is a 2 day course that outlines all the obligations in running an AFSL along with some next generation practices and processes that will enhance the client value proposition.

Doing well by making a difference! By law a trustee has a higher obligation to the client, I was privileged to see the impact it had on clients in practice. The staff work hard to live in their clients future which leads to better outcomes and experiences for clients I had not experienced previously.

I used to think that risk and regret were two different concepts. I have been fortunate to have worked with some great people who have taught me that you can always learn from failure but the bitterness from not trying is almost impossible to overcome. I never stop learning!

1. Take the time to construct a business plan and then share it with someone you respect and who is successful. In my experience successful people are generally well disposed to helping out.
2. Make sure you have enough cash for the journey and then some. It always takes more money and more time than you think.
3. Do your research - make sure you have what clients want, it makes it much easier to find them.

It was as wheat sampler on a wheat bin at a place called Wellbungin, not even a town but a railway siding 350km east of Perth. We worked from 7 to 6 over 6 days a week over the harvest season. My job was to grade the wheat that farmers delivered over the season. It was hot work but the pay was fantastic and country people have an honesty about them that is disarming.

I have to admit I'm not the best at this. I'm quite disciplined with the daily ritual of some form of exercise and periods of quiet. I like the solitude of lap swimming and dream of being invited in to the fast lane! Moderation is another goal. I'm trying to live to the mantra of "during the week my body is a temple, but on the weekend it is an amusement park!" Sometimes the weekends start early!

I often thought about trying something else but the question of 'what?' takes up too much of the time I can be putting in to projects like GreenZone. I guess I could always go back to the wheat bins...