UncommonCents is a
fortnightly event
hosted by Dean Holmes
and Craig Kouimanis.

How do you create enormous value for clients without underpricing your advice? Craig Koumanis and Dean Holmes tackle one of the biggest challenges facing financial advice businesses: the balance between value creation and value capture.

Financial advisers often solve complex problems, save clients significant amounts of money and provide confidence and peace of mind. But are they charging fairly for the value they deliver?

UncommonCents is a podcast for financial advisers and practice owners building a more profitable advice business in Australia.

A solo quick-fire discussion episode with Dean Holmes. Success in advice isn't built from qualifications alone.

This episode reflects on the experiences, challenges and opportunities that help financial professionals grow, learn and deliver better outcomes for clients.

From shareholder buyouts to next-generation ownership, funding is often the key to making succession happen.

Dean Holmes and lending specialist Connor Brennan from FundUs explore how advisers can finance acquisitions, equity buy-ins, and ownership transitions, while avoiding common lending pitfalls.

Dean Holmes sits down with Neil Rogan from Russell Investments to discuss Russell's latest Value of Advice research.

They explore why reassurance is the top reason clients seek advice, how advisers can better communicate their ongoing value and the role AI is playing in improving efficiency.

The episode also covers Russell's A-B-C-E-T framework, which estimates financial advice delivers 5.5% value annually, helping advisers clearly demonstrate their impact support fee discussion and strengthen client relationship.

AI, Technology & the Future of Advice

Dean Holmes solo debrief from the Netwealth Innovation (Accelerate) Summit, covering the evolving role of AI in financial advice, emerging technologies shaping the future, business growth strategies, and lessons from successful entrepreneurs

As cyber threats evolve and AI adoption grows, business needs to stay ahead. Fraser Jack from The Cyber Collective shares practical insights on cybersecurity, AI risks, and the strategies, advice firms can use to build a more secure and resilient business.

Dean Holmes and Craig Kouimanis explore what clients truly value from their adviser, beyond compliance, reports, and administration. 

Learn how to make your value visible, strengthen client relationships, and ensure clients clearly understand the confidence, clarity, and peace of mind you provide.

Investment bonds don't lock your money away for 10 years but the tax treatment does change.

In this myth-busting episode, Dean Holmes and Jarrad Gray from KeyInvest explain the liquidity myth that still trips up advisers today, and walk through exactly how the assessable-to-tax-paid transition works year by year.

Clients don't choose advice because it's cheap — they choose it because they believe it will change their future.

In this episode, Craig Kouimanis and Dean Holmes unpack the psychology of pricing conversations: why silence is one of the most effective tools an adviser has, the common mistakes that quietly undermine value, and how to raise fees for existing clients with confidence instead of apology.

Craig Kouimanis and Dean Holmes with Ravi Verma from OpenInvest discuss how hybrid advice can help close Australia's advice gap by combining technology, general advice, and investment solutions to serve more clients.

The conversation explores new ways advice firms can engage younger investors, future clients, and those who may not yet need full financial advice.

Key takeaway: Hybrid advice is about expanding access to quality financial guidance—not just making traditional advice more efficient.

Only got 5–10 minutes to prep? That’s all you need.

Craig Kouimanis and Dean Holmes share how to run focused, high-impact client meetings—without the stress of perfect preparation. Think quick file note review, one clear objective, three simple prompts, and even preparing live with the client.

Because great meetings don’t come from more time—they come from clarity, structure, and presence.

Craig Kouimanis and Dean Holmes explore “meeting intelligence” as a competitive advantage—using recorded meetings and transcripts to uncover what drives great advice conversations.

They highlight how firms can improve coaching, consistency, and client experience by identifying key moments, while AI makes it easy to review and replicate top-performing behaviours.

Dean Holmes explores three advice models: full service (ongoing, advisor-led), hybrid (engage for specific problems, then step away), and self-serve (product-focused, with AI expanding its potential).

Key insight: younger clients have a "Netflix effect" mindset — they want to pause or exit advice relationships when they see no immediate value. Most advisors fail to retain the next generation as a result.

The solution: offer a hybrid model for younger clients but build it as a separate business (the Qantas/Jetstar approach). Engage them now, and you'll be positioned for intergenerational wealth transfer later.

Dean Holmes speaks with Matthew Esler, CEO of Padua, about redefining financial advice as “more than me”—shifting the focus from products to end‑to‑end advice, client engagement, and regulatory certainty.

Esler outlines Padua’s move from paraplanning and tech‑enabled services to integrated advice generation, powered by open banking (Wealth X) and AI assistants (Steve AI). He also discusses Padua’s 2025 acquisitions—Wealth Data, Wealth X, and Wealth AI—enabling dashboards, video ROAs/SOAs, multilingual outputs, and media‑rich advice delivery.

The episode highlights a modular advice portal with built‑in QA, ASIC‑ and AFCA‑ready audits, secure record retention, and a low‑cost client portal designed for continuous engagement and compliance at scale.

Craig Kouimanis and Dean Holmes explain how small "just this once" exceptions slowly make businesses harder to run, less profitable, and less enjoyable.

They highlight three high-risk areas - pricing discipline, service standards, and process adherence and show how repeated exceptions undermine leadership, erode trust and create operational mess.

The episode also shares practical ways to stop exception creep, including simple decision tests, documenting exceptions, quickly resetting the standard, and involving the team to maintain accountability.

Beyond client data, Craig Kouimanis and Dean Holmes highlight the power of operational dashboards, including:

• Adviser scorecards

• Meeting volume and capacity tracking

• Workflow volumes and capacity tracking

• Workflow bottlenecks

• Productivity trends

These metrics help leaders understand where performance is strong, where support is needed, and where systems not people are the constraint.

Dean Holmes unpacks why advisers should stop charging for documents and instead sell a clear 12-month advice relationship. He outlines how to communicate the journey early, build trust fast, and present fees with confidence.

Highlights:

• Charge for outcomes, not SOAs.

• Explain the full 12-month service upfront: discovery strategy, advice docs, implementation, mid-year check in, review.

• Prospects should leave meeting one knowing they trust you, you can solve their problem, and what the service costs.

• Present fee methodology first, then the number; keep pricing simple retainer + monthly or a single 12‑month fee.

The episode highlights a modular advice portal with built‑in QA, ASIC‑ and AFCA‑ready audits, secure record retention, and a low‑cost client portal designed for continuous engagement and compliance at scale.

In this episode, Dean Holmes speaks with Stephen Handley from Fin365 about how clean, centralised data can fundamentally improve the way financial advice firms operate. Stephen showcases the power of Microsoft’s ecosystem—Dynamics, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and Power BI—to deliver secure integration, streamlined automation, and a consistently better client experience.

They also discuss how AI is enhancing file notes, compliance workflows, and business insights while strengthening—rather than replacing—the trusted adviser–client relationship.

In their 101st episode, Craig and Dean share practical strategies for a successful 2026—focusing on realistic goals, smart realignment in January, better client and pricing decisions, and more meaningful team check-ins.

They wrap up by encouraging listeners to take one actionable idea into their business.