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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

01:08:35

S7E17 Special Disability Trusts with Kathy Havers

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/04/09

Our recent episode on collaborating with other advisers - 'Playing Well With Others' - is one we're really proud of. And in that episode, Nathan and Jordan both mention the eye-opening experience of working with one specific financial adviser in a deeply specialist area. Well, this week, that adviser - Kathy Havers of Viridian Advisory - is good enough to come on and introduce us and our listeners to some of the many complexities that arise when helping people with additional needs. From Special

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01:18:29

S7E16 Scaling Advice

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/04/02

Is it possible to scale good, quality, personalised financial advice? If it can be done - then how can we do it? Can we scale the advice without scaling the discovery? How can we find out enough about somebody to know what advice they don't need - and how do we have to charge for that work? How can you, as a professional adviser, exercise and evidence your professional judgment about what a client needs - while not being bound only to what they want? Why is an episode on the efficiency of scaling

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01:06:05

S7E15 Collaborative Estates with Zinta Harris

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/03/26

Financial advisers - you've spent your entire working relationship with your clients helping them build their wealth. How prepared are you to help them make sure it passes to the next generation/s, without triggering the next War of the Roses? In this week's episode, Jordan and Nathan explore one of the alternatives to the 'traditional' view of estate planning and disputes; 'interdisciplinary collaborations'. This method, familiar to regular listeners from Jordan discussing it on the divorce side,

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01:02:13

S7E14 Discovery

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/03/19

Quick question for you - is the 'old' way of doing fact finding enough in the current financial advice profession? If it is, great - let us know! But if you don't think it is, if you think that the bar has been lifted, over and over and over again, then this episode might be for you! In this weeks meander Jordan and Nathan start to tackle the battle of gathering and evidencing a clients situation to an adequate level for the advice we provide - and what does that even mean?! Pats Blog - The Trust

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01:09:32

S7E13 Playing Well With Others

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/03/12

Financial advice is a fairly solitary pursuit - the burden sits heavy on our individual shoulders. But, does it necessarily need to be so? In this week's episode, Nathan and Jordan explore how advisers can, and are, work collaboratively to help meet our clients best interests. From sharing ideas, discussing cases and referring to specialists within the profession, the opportunity to find the best advice for your client, has never been greater. But how do we do it? Especially now that we are

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01:11:07

S7E12 QAR Revisited

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/03/05

Remember QAR? The noise, the fury, the outrage? The column inches, breath and spittle diverted into 'discussing' the Quality of Advice Review? Would it surprise you to be reminded that the final report dropped way back in February 2023 - 3 years prior to this week's episode? And, when you look around and see what a big difference it's made (...), isn't it quite astonishing? This week, prompted by Nathan discovering how funny the report was while researching another piece, he and Jordan discuss the

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59:51

S7E11 Ethics of Engagement

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/02/26

We all know what bad engagement looks like. The shiftiness in the face of the truth, the big sales pitch, over-promises and, sadly, inevitable pain when the truth comes to light. And we know what good engagement looks like - if I asked you, you could name a handful of advisers doing great work in engaging with the public. But, what about that space in between? How big is the gap between good and bad engagement? Why does it matter? Why, after all, are we all in this race for attention and

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01:03:32

S7E10 AI in Advice with Stuart from Claras.ai

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/02/19

This week, we're joined by Stuart Riddle, of Claras.ai - one of the AI offerings in the financial advice market. Nathan and Jordan start by asking him about the state of AI in financial advice, and expand into: The questions advisers should be asking about AI The questions licensees are asking about AI How AI can help advisers be more efficient, effective and balanced The specific workflows and implementations they've used with Claras, and the difference it's made How these AI products actually

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01:07:27

S7E9 Implementation

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/02/12

This week, Nathan and Jordan try to answer the question - how involved should you, as an adviser, be involved in implementing your advice? Well, they don't try all that hard, but they have a shot at it. Starting at fairly opposite ends of the spectrum, they try to discuss: Working out who's job it is to get the forms signed If it's not your job, who's is it? How involved should you still be, even if you're not the one doing the forms? Now that how we get paid has been (should be?) severed from

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01:05:09

S7E8 Gettin' Paid

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/02/05

Managing to keep the meandering at the start of the ep to a - wide ranging and flower-heavy - minimum, Nathan and Jordan quickly get on task today to discuss getting paid. From choosing how to structure the timing of when you get paid for your work as a financial adviser, to the methods you offer clients, to handling that blessedly rare occasion of a client stiffing you on a bill, they try to explore all the considerations of the topic. Because, as a professional financial adviser, you add immense

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01:06:04

S7E7 Ethics of Age Pension Advice

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/01/29

As a financial adviser, you no doubt know some stuff about the Age Pension. The Income Test. The Assets Test. Thresholds, limits, reduction factors - a fair bit of stuff. But how do you tackle some of the ethical considerations? How do you balance client best interests with client intentions - especially when some of those intentions can be a bit dicey? In this week's episode, we explore this fundamental part of retirement advice and try to add some new details and nuance to your approach. And,

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01:04:01

S7E6 Episode 100: POWER!

Challenge the Standard in Financial Advice ·

2026/01/22

100 episodes! 100 episodes of these two goons meandering around topics that affect, interest and bewilder financial advisers in Australia. To celebrate this milestone, Nathan and Jordan have decided to meander around the topic of 'power' in financial advice. Who has it, who doesn't, why they do (and don't), how they can exercise it and how we can increase it. It is, like most of our oddly popular ones, very philosophical, very meandering and filled with outdated pop culture references (they fly

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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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111 results

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