Nirlep Kalra founded Intelliplan in 2012 and acts as its Principal and provides a personal Financial Planning ideology to a diversified Client Sector. Planning, implementing and monitoring progressive and robust financial strategies whilst nurturing existing B2C and B2B relationships, and cultivating new ones.
Nirlep provides a very unique service in that he adopts an extremely client-centric approach to financial advice – believing that having a select few clients, instead of many, allows for a more thorough and effective advice framework.
What are the most important aspects/values you look for when selecting a Dealer Group?
Cultural Fit. For me, it all comes down to trust. Financial Advice is a high stakes industry - not only do we face greater mounting regulatory pressure but also reputational risk along with it.
Obviously, we want to know our Licensee will still be around in the future but moreover, each Licensee instils its own brand which can ultimately leave an impression on my clients.
I look at the people not just behind the licence but also the staff within the company - do they have any ASIC breaches? Any claims against key staff? This begins to paint some sort of picture as to the integrity of the Group.
From there I like to know what is important to the Licensee and find out whether we align our 1, 5 and 10-year plans. Some focus on growth, others on support etc - I typically steer away from Licensees running ‘CAR factories’ and tend to prefer Dealer Groups who invest heavily in support.
Also, intimate size is important too - My advice model can be quite complex at times and I really cannot afford to be buried in red tape and left waiting for drawn-out periods for simple queries. When you are an individual Principal of business, like myself, the value of timely support and responses is priceless.
Open APL is essential for me also. My job is to plan, protect and grow my clients’ wealth - I need as much discretion as possible to adequately achieve this for them. Without an open APL, my clients could receive the same service from any other planner using the same product menu - I lose my point of difference and I lose my value-add.
What attracted you to the Walker Capital Private Wealth offer?
I’ve worked with Walker Capital for a number of years, both professionally but also personally as a client. Their commitment to both performance and advice really resonated with me and felt my clients could really benefit from their consultative approach - especially with regards to open APL.
Heavy investment into compliance and support framework.
Although new and small it was quite evident to me that they spare no costs when investing into the people and processes in their advice framework.
Their compliance team gives me a lot of confidence - If I ever have concerns or queries, I can be in contact with Marija directly. This really helps the efficiency of my business and is something you just don’t get at some of the bigger Groups.
Resources and support – in my initial licensing discussions with Michael Walker he really impressed me with how empathetic he was to my business’ success. Whether I wanted to scale up or scale down he was quick to make resources available to me and even a budget for acquisitions.
I felt Michael Walker could be more of a business partner than just the Licensee which can be a real asset for those looking to scale up.
How can Walker Capital Private Wealth best support its Advisors into the future?
Timely and thorough communication from regulatory requirements. In an industry such as ours, it is important for clear and concise communication of both the Licensee and Advisor obligations in relation to any new evolving advice standards.
Walker Capital Private Wealth has been very good with this – in particular with the new FDS requirements.
I’m hoping they can maintain this level of communication as the group grows.
