Growing with the Right People: Kieran Berry, River X

As a business owner, Kieran understands the demands that come with growing a wealth management practice while continuing to put clients first. He shares how building an international support team with ASW Global has helped his business manage administrative work, access high-calibre talent, and give advisors more time to focus on their clients

Here are key takeaways from his conversation with ASW Head of Growth Daniel Breese. Watch the video below for further insights.

The Impact of Having an International Support Team

The net outcome is more time for the clients. There’s a level of administrative work that an advisor has to do. Like your statements of advice, your fact finding—the offshore team doesn’t do that for you.

But when it comes to the basics of a fund administration process, sending your end-of-year statements, or fund applications, all that should be really done for you as an advisor because your burden is relatively high from the sense of managing the clients, looking after them, and regular portfolio reviews.

For times like today, where markets are being volatile, you’ve got to invest that time being front and centre.

Accessing High-Calibre, Value-Driven Talent

This is a big learning curve through the whole thing. It’s not about the quantity of advisors you have. It’s about the quality of the people you have.

We had to figure out what we wanted, what we wanted to be, what we want to stand for, and the type of people we want to work with.

But what really surprised me was that we often had people with a high level of tertiary and university education, often educated somewhere like the UK or even here.
So, what that meant was I was getting someone with the same qualifications as a highly paid Australian worker, but at offshore rates.

So as a start-up business that was growing, that really made a lot of sense to me.

Driving High Performance with a Sports Mindset

If you’re used to competing at a level for a long period of time, you know how to keep the consistency.

I would say as well, it’s not essential though. I’ve got some guys in my business now who are great performers that don’t have a sporting background, but they’ve just got that naturally in the drive.

But I do feel that having that, it almost becomes second nature to you. So, if you’re used to having to turn up to a session every day or twice a day or whatever it is, then you’re used to also getting to that same routine when it comes to business, whether it’s making outbound calls, any administration, or reviewing client portfolios. Having a structure about the way you do things, it kind of works really well.

And I’ve gotten to the point now where I’ve hired a few ex-professional athletes within my business. They’re doing the same thing now.

Choosing the Right International Staffing Partner

The reason why I selected ASW as my partner for offshoring was when I first came to you guys, you were servicing many of my competitors in the space already, so I knew there was a level of competency around your business before having to really test you out.

So that meant that I could step in with confidence and bring in a meaningful solution with a team that already knew what my wants, needs, and desires were as a growing wealth management practice.

WATCH THE FULL PODCAST