What is changing is not the original intent of Treat Clients Fairly (TCF) outcomes – it is the standard to which those intentions must now be proven.
COFI shifts the industry from:
Good intent → provable outcomes
Sound advice → defensible advice
Strong individual advice practices → well-run advice businesses
This is an important distinction. Because when viewed correctly, COFI is not a threat to good advice businesses, it is a validation of them.
COFI and the reality on the ground
There is a significant amount of noise in the market: concerns about increased complexity, fear of compliance burden and questions about sustainability. Some of these concerns are understandable because COFI does raise the bar. However, it is equally important to recognise that many advisors and IFAs are already operating in the direction COFI demands:
- Thinking deeply about client suitability
- Strengthening advice processes
- Becoming more disciplined in products offered
- Building more sustainable practices to ensure succession
COFI does not invalidate these efforts. It requires consistency, structure and evidence at scale.
Why the business model conversation matters now
The question is no longer only: “Am I giving good advice?” It becomes: “Is my business set up to consistently prove that I am giving good advice?” For many IFAs, this is where real pressure emerges: tracking outcomes across a client base, producing evidence beyond documentation as well as maintaining governance and oversight. This is not about capability. It is about capacity, infrastructure and sustainability.
Why dealerships are increasingly relevant
In this environment, dealership models become more attractive because they solve for scale and structure in a way that individual businesses often struggle to replicate.
At their best, dealerships provide consistency through structured advice frameworks, governance through shared oversight, efficiency through centralised capability and risk reduction through collective monitoring of outcomes.
Put differently: they move businesses from proving outcomes individually to demonstrating outcomes systematically. That is highly relevant in a COFI environment.
However, it is important to state that there is no single “correct” model. Independent and hybrid models will continue to exist and succeed. The real differentiator will be how effectively each model delivers and proves client outcomes.
Where Succession Financial Planning is deliberately different
At Succession Financial Planning, our starting point has never been tick-box compliance. It has always been the growth, sustainability and long-term value of the advisor’s business servicing and delivering fair client outcomes. COFI does not change that focus, it reinforces it. You cannot consistently prove good client outcomes if you do not have a well-structured, scalable and supported advice business.
That is why our model is built around three clear promises, not as concepts, but as practical enablers of advisor success in a COFI world.
Our three promises
1. Growth, scaling and diversification. We enable advisors to diversify, scale and grow their financial planning and advice practice faster than they can on their own, beyond their own aspirations. COFI will reward businesses that are structured, disciplined and scalable. Growth without structure will be exposed. Structure without growth will stagnate. Our role is to bring both together. What this looks like in practice:
- Brand credibility. A recognised, trusted environment that strengthens both client confidence and regulatory standing.
- Belonging. A peer community where advisors contribute, learn and evolve together.
- Specialised human support. Experts in business and practice development who help shape your growth journey.
- Business building for growth. Structured programmes (C4V, Ignite, Accelerate, Optimise) provide a roadmap for scaling.
- Income diversification. Access to multiple business models and data-driven opportunities to unlock new revenue streams.
In a COFI context, growth is no longer just about production; it is about building a business that can deliver consistent, repeatable client outcomes at scale.
2. Compliance that enhances. We support advisors to ensure regulatory and advice compliance enhances rather than hinders their operations. COFI increases the burden of proof, but it does not require advisors to carry that burden alone. Compliance moves from being a cost of doing business to a source of confidence and competitive advantage.
3. Business building and succession confidence. We offer an ongoing practice-building journey that helps advisors articulate, grow and ultimately realise the value of their business, supported by executable succession options. What this looks like in practice:
- Practice enablement. Tools and frameworks that allow advisors to operate consistently.
- Practice development. Ongoing measurement through business health indicators and valuations.
- Succession planning. Capital guarantees and buyer financing that protects the advisor’s life’s work.
- Ease of business. Advice enablers, marketing support and platforms that simplify client engagement.
The value of your business will increasingly be determined by your ability to demonstrate consistent, fair client outcomes over time.
Bringing it together
COFI does not change what great advisors do. It changes what they must prove and how consistently they must prove it. This is where structure, scale and support matter. It is also where dealership models become more relevant not as a requirement, but as an enabler of sustainability and growth. At their best, dealerships provide structure where there is fragmentation, enable consistency where there is variability and reduce risk where there is exposure.
Why Succession Financial Planning’s model matters
Succession Financial Planning is not built to restrict advisors. It is built to enable them to thrive in a more demanding environment. We do not replace independence; we strengthen it with structure while you keep best-of-breed product choice. We do not limit growth; we accelerate it with capability. We do not impose compliance; we integrate it into how your business operates. That is an important distinction.
A final perspective
COFI is not the disruptor. It is the accelerator of where the industry was already going. The real question for every advisor should be: “Do I have the structure, support and scalability to consistently prove the value I deliver?”
For those who do, COFI becomes an advantage. For those who don’t, it becomes pressure. At Succession Financial Planning, our role is clear: to ensure that our advisors are not reacting to that pressure but are positioned to grow because of it.
