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PODCAST

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice

Nathan Fradley and Jordan Vaka

Welcome to the Challenge the Standard podcast - a podcast for financial advisers, by financial advisers. Your hosts, Nathan Fradley and Jordan Vaka, will examine the biases, fixed thinking and status quo in advice. In every episode, we"ll dive deep into the world of financial advice, questioning the norms, sparking new ideas and exploring how we could do things better. Our goal is to elevate our professional practices and "uphold and promote the standards of our profession. So, whether you"re a

business management

All Episodes

01:17:49

S7E5 - We (Kinda) Read RG181

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/12/18

We genuinely had a plan for this episode...and then it just ran right off the rails. Which is a shame*. Because ASIC have updated their regulatory guidance around Conflicts of Interest, in Regulatory Guide 181. And it's good. Useful. Broader than before, touching on a wider range of potential conflicts amongst a much larger ecosystem than was the case when it was last refreshed (2004, ahem). It's one of our longest episodes, but even with our weird tangents and Simpsons quotes and more Willy

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01:13:49

S7E4 The Business of Advice with Patrick Flynn

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/12/11

Get in touchContinuing our streak of bringing people on, then putting them in commercially awkward positions by asking silly questions, we're joined in this episode by Patrick Flynn of Simply Kaizen. Who, despite our shenanigans, is happy to discuss: Why the leap from 1-2 advisers to 7+ is across such a large canyon Where Kaizen comes from and how it feeds into his philosophy about the business of advice Why the skills that make you a great financial adviser may not make you a great business owner

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01:08:06

S7E3 Weaknesses

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/12/04

Weaknesses - we've all got 'em. But, what do we do about them? This week's episode sees Jordan and Nathan exploring the idea of weaknesses: What they are (and what they aren't) How to recognise them What to do about them How the weaknesses we all have can manifest in our work, our personal lives and our practices There's a smidge of vulnerability from the two of them, but hopefully you leave with a framework to tackle your own weaknesses - all with the goal of working towards your very best

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58:22

S7E2 Can You Act? Divorce Dilemmas

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/11/27

Time for more dilemmas - this time, what do you do when a client (strongly) hints they want to end their marriage? How do you handle the disclosure? How do you advise them? What do you do about the partner? Throw in TPD, infidelity, a brief detour in ASIC's SMSF report and a healthy dose of uncertainty, and you've got this week's episode. In it, Jordan and Nathan: Propose frameworks to help you navigate this very thorny issue Thank the wonderful advisers who have posed these questions recently

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42:23

S7E1 Why You Should Attend Conferences, with Glen James

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/11/20

You see the event announcement, and you think to yourself, "Flights, Accomodation, Time out of the business, Time away from your family... is this conference really worth it?" In this episode (recorded live in the vendor hall of the FAAA Congress 2025) Jordan and Nathan are joined by Glen James (Podcaster Extraordinaire, now Youtuber) to discuss How the gold Glen got from conferences helped set up Glens business for success Why your mind set, and 'leaning in' is the key to get the most out How is

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52:47

S6E20 The James Wrigley Episode

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/11/13

Fresh off the release of his first book - Retire Life Ready - we're joined by James Wrigley. With the largest following on social media of any Australian financial adviser*, James is building his practice by talking to people on all the social platforms. Which is why, in this episode, we studiously ignored talking about social media or marketing. Instead, we wanted to know about his experience working within a larger firm: How do they structure their teams? What're the key considerations with

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59:35

S6E19 The Investment Dilemma

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/11/06

Index vs Active - it's the investment debate we all love to keep having. Or, is it? Because what's presented as a flat, binary choice is really much more nuanced. And, to be frank, boring. More interesting to us - and what we explore in this week's episode - is the framework and process advisers build to help answer the many "what about"s that come up when we're building our own investment philosophy. Because indexing is fantastic...but what about that concentration risk? And active management

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57:36

S6E18 Ethics of CPD with Clayton Daniel

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/10/30

How much of your actual development as a professional is being captured via your CPD obligations? Are you only doing 40 hours of learning across the year? Or are you constantly learning? If the latter, then join us this week as we chat with Clayton Daniel of CPD Check. Best known for his central role in the rise of the Ensombl platform, Clayton has turned his eye to expanding and democratising the CPD accreditation process. And he's gone even further and agreed to allow us to submit all future (and

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01:10:09

S6E17 Referrals

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/10/23

Referrals. We all need them. We all want them. And we're all, to some degree, getting them. But what works? Why does it work? And, critically, what doesn't work? In this week's episode, Nathan and Jordan have a shot at unpacking this huge and critical topic, to discuss: How advisers can easier find clients they like working with The two key problems all business owners face Why those of us who aren't charged with finding new work should take a moment to appreciate how difficult that job can be

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01:02:56

S6E16 Expectations

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/10/16

We're getting philosophical again this week, but unlike our other meanderings up our own backsides - this one has real value for listeners*. Nathan realised recently that our job as advisers comes down to one, big concept: expectations. Helping clients recognise, articulate, explore, challenge and achieve their expectations. This seed of an idea triggered a conversation that touches on: The gap between aspirations and expectations (and whether the value of our advice sits in there) The power of

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01:06:39

S6E15 First Meetings

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/10/09

We can all agree that the first meeting is crucial. But - why? What are you looking for out of that meeting? What makes the first meeting a successful one? What's your intention for this meeting - and for the entire process around it? In this week's episode, Nathan and Jordan unpack what they think makes a good first appointment, what they've seen other advisers doing and what they've learned from talking with people like Brendan Frazier. With the now-customary digression into sceptical naivete

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54:37

S6E14 Trusts & Div7A In Divorce with Ashley Taylor

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/10/02

We're joined this week by Ashley Taylor, accredited family law specialist from Lander & Rogers. Ashley's here to help us unpack the trickier financial complexities that can arise in divorce negotiations, including: Family trusts in all their wonderful permutations Why it's not as simple as 'if you're the appointor, it's in the pool' How intergenerational trusts are looked at in the settlement process What a Div7A loan is - and why family lawyers treat them very carefully Some of the things, flags

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01:02:29

S6E13 Private Assets

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/09/25

We've thought about doing an episode about private credit, equity and markets for a while now - but couldn't ever work out the right angle to take on such a big topic. Then the news cycle swooped in and gave us the link we never knew we needed - between private credit investments and Target Market Determinations (TMDs). This is a big topic, and Nathan and Jordan do their best to: Define just what all these private market investments are Acknowledge the tough path last week's news will have left

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01:07:16

S6E12 Roll for Niche

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/09/18

You've heard the experts (and these two mugs) repeatedly say "you should niche". But they never pay you the courtesy of explaining how. Well, let us rectify that oversight in this week's episode by giving you one, easy answer: "Roll a dice". Or, more accurately, a set of D&D dice. This week, Nathan and Jordan set up a number of different categories and roll the dice to build out and explore potential niches. Not to build a business around them, but instead to demonstrate some of the thinking,

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01:03:14

S6E11 Social Media Success with Deline Jacovides

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/09/14

What's stopping you from being more active on social media? From a professional perspective, that is - I'm sure you're forever taking photos of your meals on your own account. But when it comes to work (or your business), what's stopping you from getting your voice out there? Is it shyness? Impostor syndrome? Perfectionism? Disdain? Or a mix of the above? Well, that's why we asked Deline Jacovides from Mazi Wealth on for this week's episode, because she has entirely grown her business using social

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54:32

S6E10 Q&A2: Annuities, Tax Deductible Fees, Insurance...

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/09/04

This week we’re back with a Q&A episode, tackling three big questions that have been landing in our inbox from our listeners. New and exciting Annuity products: With a wave of new products hitting the market, we unpack what advisers should watch out for, why a healthy dose of skepticism is essential, and the dangers of shiny innovation that later gets grandfathered or disappears. Tax-deductible advice fees: how to think about in-super vs out-of-pocket charging Insurance commissions. Do they really

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51:48

S6E9 The Gameshow

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/08/28

This week's episode is about an incredibly serious, meaningful topic. Just kidding. It's a gameshow!! Mr Fradley has designed an excellent gameshow to put his (bewilderingly bad) co-host and (outstanding) guests, James d'Apice of Gravamen and Morgan Hayward of Lume Wealth through their paces. He's also managed to keep it in the realm of financial advice! More fun than should be allowed in any professional endeavour, we hope this works as a palette cleanser after the last few weeks of capital-S

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58:27

S6E8 The Power of Peers with Charmaine Hall

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/08/22

This week's episode is all about the immense difference a network of peers can have on your career, practice and life. Joined by Charmaine Hall of Unbound Financial, Nathan and Jordan find out: How the peer network Charmaine's part of came to be The pros (and cons) of facilitating, and participating in, a peer group What good practice as a participant looks like A cracking example on the immediate impact advice from peers can have on your business Later in the episode, Jordan expands on his

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01:04:06

S6E7 Ethical Dilemmas in Pricing

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/08/14

Whether it's sheer coincidence or not, Nathan and Jordan have happened to have a few...interesting pricing cases float their way since last week's episode on Pricing. So in this one, they take the time to examine two examples of pricing in the market. Anonymised, but detailed enough to provide lots of meaty discussion, including: How much is too much to charge for financial advice? Who are we to have an opinion about what other advisers are charging? Are our own biases colouring how we see things

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01:12:27

S6E6 Pricing (Again. But Better.)

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2025/08/07

We've talked about pricing before. We've discussed the options, the methods and (some of) the considerations. But, let's be honest, the audio sucked and we had even less of an idea than we have now. So it's time to revisit this foundation stone of the financial advisers practice. Get pricing right, we believe, and yours will be a successful career. Get it right, or fall for the propaganda that says it's our responsibility to provide cheap advice to all people, and your career will be

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