The Trusted Adviser

The Business That Doesn't Need You with Gabe Enslin from Adapt

Most financial planning principals are so focused on building their business that they never stop to ask a more important question: what happens to it if you're not there? Gabe Enslin is the CEO of Adapt, a business built specifically to help SME owners answer that question — before it becomes an urgent one. In this episode, Gabe traces how Adapt came to exist through a very personal crisis faced by founder Bill Withers, who discovered the hard way just how fragile a business becomes when it's been built around a single person. That experience sparked over a decade of research into what it actually takes to build a business that can thrive without its owner at the centre. Rob and Gabe dig into the distinction between succession planning and succession thinking — and why the gap between those two ideas is costing business owners time, money, and options. Gabe walks through the five principles that give owners a framework for building a genuinely resilient business, unpacks why role clarity is the principle most consistently underestimated, and explains why it's often the owner's own behaviour — not a lack of good people — that stands in the way of real transferability. They also get into the mechanics of how Adapt works with businesses — from the business resilience assessment that measures a firm's health across economic engine, culture, financial security and organisational design, to the reverse performance review that asks not how your team is performing, but how your business is performing for them. It's a reframe that lands differently when you hear how directly it connects to what financial planners already do every day with clients. For financial planning principals thinking about their own business — whether succession is five years away or fifteen — the practical takeaway from this conversation is clear: the time to start is well before you think you need to. You can find Gabe and the Adapt team at theadaptway.com or connect with him directly on LinkedIn.

Beyond Referrals: David Newson (XNW Atelier) on the Future of Marketing for Independent Advisers

What does it actually take to attract your next best client — before they've been referred to you? Most advice firms are excellent at converting a warm referral. But in a world where affluent consumers increasingly search before they ask a friend, the ability to earn trust from scratch is an entirely different skill. In this episode, Rob is joined by David Newson, founder of XNW Atelier and a marketing strategist with over two decades of experience inside the independent advisory world. David brings a rare combination: deep expertise in consumer behaviour, a background in business development at a San Francisco-based RIA, and a genuine understanding of what makes affluent clients choose — and stay with — a financial advice firm. Together, Rob and David unpack why most advice firm websites look and sound the same, the critical difference between communications and true marketing strategy, and what it means to build genuine magnetism rather than just push content into the world. They explore the psychology of the affluent consumer, how to design trust signals that actually hold water, and why positioning is a business decision long before it becomes a marketing one. David also shares a perspective on AI and the future of advice that is worth the listen alone — and it has nothing to do with out-teching the technology. Whether you're a principal thinking about organic growth or a leader wondering why your digital presence isn't converting, this conversation will reframe how you think about marketing your firm.

Building a Modern Advice Firm: Terry Dillon on the Evolution of Shadforth Financial Group

What happens when 13 of the most successful independent advice firms in Australia decide to put their egos aside and build something together? That's the modern origin story of Shadforth Financial Group — and it's the backdrop for one of the most compelling conversations we've had on this show. Terry Dillon has been with Shadforth for 34 years. He spent the first two decades as an adviser before stepping into the CEO role in 2018 — right in the middle of the Royal Commission. Rather than retreating from the scrutiny that came with institutional ownership, he walked into the boardroom and told the parent company: if we can't make each other better every day, you should probably sell us. That moment set the tone for everything that followed. In this episode, Terry and Rob cover the decisions that transformed Shadforth from a business built for sale into one built to lead — now close to 100 advisers, 270 staff, 11,000 families, and around $20 billion under stewardship. They get into Shadforth's evidence-based investment philosophy, the family advice guarantee that addresses intergenerational wealth transfer in a way Rob hadn't heard before, and their technology roadmap — including a client app that takes advice from a static document to something closer to a live financial plan on your phone. They also talk acquisitions. Shadforth is growing strongly — double digits, organically — and now has its sights set on inorganic growth to match. But it's the way Terry frames the ambition that really lands. He's not talking about incremental targets. He's asked his leadership team to think about what Shadforth looks like at ten times its current size — and what that forces you to do differently today. Stick around for the moment near the end where Terry names the kind of firm he believes Shadforth can become — and the professional services names he wants spoken in the same breath. It's the kind of ambition that reframes how you think about what's possible in advice.

Scaling Advice: Jeff Thurecht on Talent, Technology and Growth

What does it actually take to build a financial planning firm that wins Company of the Year? Jeff Thurecht is the co-founder and CEO of Evalesco Financial Services, a Sydney-based firm he built alongside business partner Marshall Brentnall nearly two decades ago. The name says it all: Evalesco is Latin for "to grow strong, prevail and add value." In 2025, the industry agreed, awarding Evalesco both the Holistic Advice Firm of the Year and the overall Company of the Year at the IFA Excellence Awards. In this conversation, Jeff opens up about the deliberate decisions behind that recognition. He shares how Evalesco built demographic-specific advice pods, from wealth accumulators and pre-retirees through to a genuine high net worth, multi-family office offering via the Principal Edge acquisition. He explains how a team of nine in the Philippines became one of the most valued parts of the business, not as outsourced support but as genuinely embedded team members. Jeff is also candid about what it really meant to win a company award rather than an individual one, and why building a team without "rock stars" has always been the goal. We also cover: * The acquisition of Principal Edge: what made it the right move, what made it hard, and what's still being worked through * The identity shift from adviser to CEO, and the surprisingly difficult task of measuring your own progress when client appointments no longer fill your diary * Evalesco's bold 3k 30 vision: 3,000 ideal clients by 2030, and exactly how they plan to get there * How technology is being used to free up adviser face time, including a new CRM build on Microsoft Dynamics and a purpose-built Technology and Advice Delivery Manager role Jeff's answer to the final question, what single thing would move the needle most right now, is one of the clearest articulations of great advice leadership you'll hear.

Turning Your Team into Owners: The HPH Employee Ownership Model with Nick Bordi

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, I sit down with our Chief Operating Officer, Nick Bordi, to unpack one of the most talked-about topics in financial planning businesses: employee ownership. At HPH Solutions, what started as a simple idea to reward and retain great people has evolved into something far more powerful. Our Team Equity Trust now plays a central role in ownership transition, long-term incentives, and what we’ve come to think of as an “internal private equity” model. Nick and I go deep into how the structure actually works – from eligibility and valuation through to funding mechanisms for younger team members and the governance required when you have dozens of employee owners. We also share the lessons we’ve learned along the way, including mistakes, structural changes, and the thinking behind key decisions like not discounting equity. If you’re a business owner thinking about succession, culture, or how to align your team to long-term growth, this conversation offers a practical and transparent look at what’s worked for us – and what we’d do differently.