Ham explained that the financial planner exams are like a private pilot's licence.
“Just because you have a private pilot's licence, it doesn't make you a pilot - it just qualifies you.
“This is what my instructor told me when I was learning to fly. It's all the hours that you do post qualification where you actually learn all the different situations.”
What are the biggest challenges facing new advice business owners today?
Ham explained a lot of people talk about regulation but this is an area he is fairly comfortable with.
“We were initially appointed representatives of Sanlam but now we've been directly authorised for two years.
“The difficult bit for me is actually more around legislation and it changing every time which makes it hard to advise people with shifting sands.”
He explained in the past few years, there have been a number of changes to the lifetime allowance, talks about inheritance tax and so on, which all add to the difficulty.
What are your thoughts on diversity and inclusion in financial services?
“There's a tricky line here as you definitely don't want any negative discrimination but you've got to be really careful about positive discrimination,” he said.
“Do I sit in a room of financial planners at conferences and think we're a particularly diverse bunch? No. Does that need to change to reflect society? Absolutely.
“So how do we go about that?”
Ham said more people need to be encouraged to join the industry and argued there is an issue with certain people from certain areas or from certain backgrounds who feel that they are unable to come in.
“So first of all, we need to get some really good role models out there so you can go okay, that person looks and feels like me,” he said.
For someone who is starting out, what is the one book that you'd recommend?
“I quite like the Carl Richards book, The One Page Financial Plan and there's another one which is Around the year with Nick Murray.
“Murray’s is a diary of a year and on each page it's got a little bit of advice,” he said.
“It talks about the mindset of giving advice and the value that you bring to clients and your what not to do and things like that.
“I have not made it through a full year yet reading each day's sort of a joke on Twitter where we'll start January 1.”
What is the one thing you can't live without as an adviser?
“My phone,” Ham said. “I can run a cash flow model on here, I can speak to clients, I can do everything.
“I can run the business and if push came to shove, I could cast to the TV and I could present to you as a client.”
If the industry could improve on one thing, what do you think it should be?
“It's got to continually improve its reputation,” he said. “It's just got to.
“That includes the DNI piece, that includes good behaviours, and force for good because good financial planning is a force for good.
