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ISCOVER
One broker is about to add his first employee as part of a succession plan that has finally brought order to his firm.
The new staffer will join Direct Lend Australia on May 1 and serve as a loan writer and office manager.
Owner Andrew Mee said he had long wanted her to join the Adelaide firm but she had always refused because of its lack of structure.
Mr Mee, 58, told The Adviser that he had accidentally stumbled upon succession planning and wished he’d done it years earlier because of the efficiencies it had driven at Direct Lend.
He said NCCP had forced him to hire consultants so he could meet his compliance obligations, which was when he learned the value of systemising his day-to-day operations.
The consultants also helped him devise a long-term strategy to stop him “blindly heading forwards”, he added.
Mr Mee said he had no immediate plans to retire, but that it was important to bring order to Direct Lend so that it could be sold at any time or managed by his wife if he suddenly died.
The extra staffer will also allow Direct Lend to function smoothly in his absence.
Mr Mee said he knew other brokers who were “muddling along” like he used to and who did not realise how much they could benefit from consultants.
“I’m sure there are lots of guys like myself who think, ‘I can do this, it will just happen’, but there are so many things they’re not thinking of. Yes, it costs a bit of money to bring people in to help you achieve it, but it’s money well spent,” he told The Adviser.
“It’s important to think broader with succession planning than what will happen to my trail book, which was all I used to think of.”
