Why Coaching Belongs at the Centre of Every Financial Planning Business

Coaching has always been part of FI Consult’s DNA even though we have never placed it on centre stage. It has grown organically through years of work alongside business owners and leadership teams, shaped in part by Jason Bernic’s experience coaching individuals across the financial-services landscape. It is also supported by associate coaches who bring something rare to this sector. These are individuals who combine deep financial-planning experience often including the Certified Financial Planner designation with formal coaching training. This blend of technical credibility and human insight is unusual and incredibly valuable in an industry where professional and personal performance are inseparable.

In financial services, people are always learning. They attend conferences, take courses, complete CPD hours, sign up for product workshops and aim to stay relevant in a fast-moving landscape. The appetite for growth is undeniable yet much of this learning sits on the surface. It upskills the professional but does not necessarily develop the person.

Most of the investment in learning across the industry does not come from individuals. It comes from the businesses around them. Large institutions have learning and development budgets, which makes the spend easier and the tax treatment simpler. Product providers sponsor events and training because it connects naturally to distribution. Advisors and leaders participate enthusiastically especially when it is free or when there is a lunch involved. The challenge is that while these investments are helpful, they are not transformative. They add knowledge without shifting mindset. They add certificates without shifting behaviour. They create movement without necessarily creating growth.

The gap becomes even more visible in the small to medium businesses. These firms are often strong, entrepreneurial and committed to excellence. They take their people seriously and invest where they can. Most of that investment is in qualifications, regulatory requirements, product training and hard skills. What is missing is the development of the person behind the role. The advisor who is trying to build a business while balancing family pressure. The operations manager who is talented but overwhelmed. The young entrant who has potential but no sense yet of what it means to lead oneself. The senior partner who has achieved success but no longer has clarity on the next chapter.

These needs do not get solved through another course. They get solved through coaching.

Coaching reaches the parts of performance that technical skills cannot touch. It supports the mindset required to operate in a demanding industry. It builds self-awareness, resilience and internal resourcefulness. It creates the space for individuals to understand how they show up and how that affects the business around them. Good coaching brings personal goals into alignment with professional commitments and links both to financial outcomes. It helps individuals become self-generating and self-correcting, which is the hallmark of high performance, and it does something else that is not spoken about enough - it takes care of the human being who is carrying the load.

Every financial-planning business says their people are their biggest asset. Coaching is the mechanism that turns that statement into reality.

For the one-person practice, coaching helps the owner shift out of survival mode and into intentional leadership. It strengthens confidence, clarifies priorities and develops the capacity to work on the business rather than only in it. For a growing firm with five or ten people, coaching builds team cohesion, improves communication, reduces avoidable conflict and develops individuals who can handle more responsibility with less stress. For the established SME that is ready to scale, coaching becomes the lever that unlocks the next level of maturity. It shapes managers into leaders and leaders into people who can genuinely move a business forward.

At the other end of the spectrum are the large, listed businesses with thousands of employees. These organisations have influence, infrastructure and reach yet they often fall into the same trap. They invest heavily in leadership courses because it feels structured and measurable, and individuals enjoy attending because it looks good on a CV. The problem is that courses rarely change behaviour. They educate, but they do not transform. They give leaders frameworks without addressing blind spots. The most successful people in the world have coaches not because they are lacking in knowledge but because they need insight into what they cannot see for themselves.

There is enormous opportunity for the South African financial-services industry to use coaching far more strategically. When coaching is positioned as a development luxury, it gets treated as optional. When it is understood as a performance tool, everything shifts. The quality of thinking improves. The culture strengthens. The emotional maturity of the business rises. People communicate better, hold themselves accountable, manage pressure more effectively and pursue their goals with more intention. They become better leaders, better team members and better humans.

The sweet spot is the business that believes in its people and wants those people to grow. Not only through qualifications or compliance requirements but through real internal development. Coaching supports the creation of the next version of each individual. The version that is more courageous, more resilient, more adaptable, more focused and more capable of navigating a demanding industry with clarity rather than reactivity.

Our invitation to the industry is simple... Invest in your people. Give them access to the kind of development that changes the way they think, work and live. Support their personal goals as intentionally as you support their performance metrics. Help them find the link between who they are and the results they want to create. Equip them with a coach who understands both the human side and the financial-planning context.

This is the investment that lifts a business from functioning to flourishing. It is the investment that turns potential into performance and performance into legacy.

When a financial-planning business invests in coaching, it is not just developing its people - it is shaping its future.