THE STORY
FI Consult was founded in 2023 by Jason Bernic and David Kop, who had both spent most of their careers working alongside the financial planning profession. Jason had built a successful life, executive and leadership coaching business that worked closely with advisors and their businesses, and David was leaving the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa after years at the centre of the profession's development. Both cared deeply about financial planning, and neither wanted to step away from it.
From where they stood, the picture was clear. The profession had spent years professionalising its advice, and it had made real progress. Those delivering that advice, however, had very little support of their own, least of all in two areas: running as businesses rather than practices, and building around advice rather than product.
That gap is why FI Consult exists. Advice is not the business: it is the product.
The businesses that grow and last are the ones that understand the difference.
FI Consult began as a management consultancy, and it soon grew into a broader range of services, with consulting as one among many. A mergers and acquisitions arm had always been part of the plan, given how quickly the market was consolidating, and in 2025 Marc du Plooy joined as a shareholder and director to build it, bringing his depth in M&A to the consulting work as well.
Today, FI Consult works across consulting, services and products, with clients ranging from independent practices to established institutions. It remains fully independent, owned by its partners and accountable only to its clients, and it works on, in and for the businesses it serves.
Those businesses have always advised others. FI Consult was built to advise them.
THE NAME
FI Consult is short for Financial Institution Consult. Under the CoFI legislation, the term financial institution will replace financial services provider: the name looks ahead to that change.
2023
Founded by Jason Bernic & David Kop
2025
Marc du Plooy joins and M&A launches
Today
Consulting, services and products for advice businesses of every size
THE TEAM
Your partners
Jason Bernic
Co-founder & Director
Human engagement · Client experience · Coaching · Client acquisition
Jason entered financial services in 2003 and has stayed close to the profession ever since, across financial planning, international wealth management, coaching and business consulting. He has worked within local and global financial institutions, and has advised independent, agency and franchise businesses.
He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning, was a member of the Financial Planning Institute for more than twenty years, and is a qualified life, executive and leadership coach through the NeuroLeadership Institute and the Centre for Coaching at the UCT Graduate School of Business. In 2012 he recognised how naturally coaching and financial planning belong together, and he has since focused on helping advice businesses grow through their people: elevating the client experience on the outside, and performance and development on the inside.
That work led him to create Insane! Prospecting, a prospecting programme built specifically for financial advisors, which has produced more than 170 prospecting strategies and now runs as FI Consult's prospecting bootcamp. It also underpins The Client Acquisition Blueprint for Financial Advisors, his comprehensive guide to building a reliable client pipeline.
Jason co-founded FI Consult with David in 2023, and leads its work in human engagement, client experience and business development.
David Kop
Co-founder & Director
Human engagement · Client experience · Coaching · Client acquisition
David's career in financial services began, as so many in South Africa do, by chance. More than twenty-five years ago, while studying accounting, he applied for what he believed was an accounting role and found himself in a service clerk position at an insurer. It sparked a lasting passion for the industry, and he soon changed course to pursue the CFP® designation.
Since then he has seen the profession from almost every angle: in telephone sales and administration, as a tied financial advisor and paraplanner, as a lecturer and as a business owner. He went on to spend nine years at the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa as Head of the Policy Division, representing financial planners in their engagements with regulators and policymakers.
In 2023 David co-founded FI Consult with Jason, continuing the work that has defined his career: helping financial planning take its place as a respected profession. He now works alongside advice businesses on their strategy and growth, bringing a rare understanding of both the regulatory environment and the day-to-day realities of running an advice business.
Marc du Plooy
Director & Head of M&A
Human engagement · Client experience · Coaching · Client acquisition
Marc brings more than three decades of experience in financial services. His career began in the corporate sector as a statistics clerk and progressed through internal auditing, finance and strategic management into executive leadership, including as Deputy Managing Director. He holds a National Diploma in Internal Auditing, a Bachelor's degree in Financial Management and Internal Auditing, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Investment Management, with postgraduate research on the discretionary fund management industry in South Africa.
After a period running his own consulting business, he co-founded Wealth Associates in 2006 and built it over almost two decades, exiting in 2025 following the introduction of new investors. Along the way he chaired the FIA's DFM Committee, engaging with the FSCA and key industry stakeholders, and served as a Director of the FIA.
Marc joined FI Consult as a shareholder and director in 2025 to build its mergers and acquisitions offering, and works across its consulting on strategy, turnaround and growth. He is the author of Inside the Consolidation Game, and speaks regularly on business strategy and investment in financial services.
OUR CLIENTS
