From the founding of View, possibly more by luck than design, we have been acutely aware of the adviser journey.
Having seen first hand that the traditional professional services approach often served the owners of the business very well and all others not so well, we knew that we could either choose to be part of the solution or remain part of the problem.
History has shown that the problems faced by the big law firms are now being faced by almost all advisers.
If you are considering joining at the Family service level, please be aware that this may not be suitable for you. In particular:
Our mantra to be ‘for friends’ has its foundation in helping all advisers meet the challenge and is inspired by the 3Ds (with a name check to Peter Diamandis), namely:
As advisers and for the adviser community (whether it be accountants, financial advisers or other lawyers), we are all experiencing the impact of the marketplace that sees knowledge and even wisdom as simply ‘tickets to the arena’. Our customers now expect us to apply our knowledge and wisdom to deliver deeply valuable insights.
This journey and the contribution that VIEW makes is most easily explained through the three “i”s, namely:
Information and Interpretation are areas that we have delivered with passion and boring regularity since 2005.
Now VIEW is doubling down to deliver deeply on Insight and Inspiration.
Like all new technology tools, we have experienced firsthand the potentially negative aspects of social media.
This said, the extraordinary power of private Facebook communities are indisputable.
View’s online mastermind membership communities create a framework to allow open-minded advisers the opportunity to radically improve the insight and inspiration they deliver to their customers.
| Not for you | Could be for you |
|---|---|
| You are looking for polished highly scripted content delivered periodically. | You are looking for content that is raw, uncensored and delivered by way of a conversation. Every. Single. Week. |
| You learn only by one-way consumption of information. | Learning here leverages the community – while View hosts and is ultimately responsible for being accountable to the community – it is a conversation, not a sermon. |
| You believe a one-to-one discussion with a lawyer is the only way to answer your questions. | Community members have unlimited access to the curated content in the Adviser FAQs and blog posts, built in response to questions advisers have asked of us since 1997. |
| You believe AI is the single biggest threat to professional service firms. | You believe AI is the single biggest opportunity to empower advisers to be delivering deeply insightful and inspirational value to their customers. |
| You believe there is a lump of work available and it is a competition to catch as much of that work is possible. | Members of the community believe that sharing and collaboration create an infinite range of possibilities and that the lifting up of each member’s business improves all members of the community. |
| You believe communities – particularly online – are an excuse for not doing real work. | Community members believe that real work now is not about grinding out repetitive tasks over and over again. We need to move away from the knowledge based service delivery to the insightful and inspiring delivery of value. |
| You believe that attending conferences is about collecting CPD points and passively listening to lecture style sermons. | Community retreats are structured so that every attendee must deliver a seven minute TEDx style presentation of an important lesson that they have learnt in the previous 12 months. |
| You think estate planning is simply about getting a will done. | Community members believe in “EAAE” – i.e. estate planning as an ecosystem whereby wills are delivered as an integrated part of also delivering superannuation, tax planning, structuring, asset protection and business succession advice. |
| You believe that the only way to deliver value is by reference to inputs (for example, time recording). | Community members believe this model is (and indeed always was) inappropriate for both the customer and adviser. |
| You believe that membership-based communities are some sort of cunning plan to trick you into a perpetual license fee arrangement. | Community members know it to be true that they can cancel the membership instantaneously at any moment. |
| You believe online communities should be free. | Community members know that anything of substance that is ‘free’ either means you’re the product, or taxes you in other ways (eg perpetual sales pitches or little accountability for delivery of content). Here, there are no sales and a passionate focus on sharing high value insights. |
| You believe that the fact no others are offering a similar solution matters. | Yes; and? |
| You prefer treating learning as a CapEx cost. | This platform is built around ‘and’ not ‘or’ – in other words, an OpEx investment makes sense on many levels. |
| You do not want to use View for all of your estate planning solutions. | All good – there is a complete dedication to your ongoing and absolute discretion to deliver solutions in the way that best serves your business. |
| You do not want to use View for other solutions. | Again – all good. See above line item. |
In a word – yes.
While we have actively explored other platforms, there is a reason that Facebook has been as successful as it has been. Its ability to collaboratively have communities share in a secure and usable interface is currently unmatched. This said, we know that Facebook is not necessarily a social media platform that community members otherwise choose to utilise and there is no need or expectation for community members to be otherwise active on Facebook in order to derive full value from the community.
Absolutely, as soon as you feel you are no longer getting value. The processing of exit is done at the end of the month you choose to exit. This platform is not an elaborate tool like some heritage solutions to get you locked into a process that is tricky to extract yourself from.
Our only request – that you can choose to ignore – is that you share with us why you were not getting the value desired.
For many, a key contribution that you can make is being an active member of the community – turning up and engaging where you think you can add value. At a minimum, you will need to be an active listener in the conversation that takes place and commit to apply the learnings from the weekly and monthly sharing that View leads in the community.
In a Resources sense, you will need reliable Internet access and an active Facebook account. Other than that however, the value you derive will largely depend on your attitude and commitment.
Fantastic – if they are otherwise the right fit, we would love to welcome them. In terms of the pricing, please contact us here and we will work out an arrangement that is fair for all.
Most firms adopt one of two approaches, namely:
(a) One or two members of the firm join best fit membership level and then leverage content to provide internal firm education (eg a ‘train the trainer’ model)
(b) All nominated firm members join best fit membership via an agreed corporate membership arrangement
Immediately. As soon as you join the community, this will trigger a series of emails that give you everything that you need.
The community is not for everyone. This said, we have created three service levels to allow a significant level of control over your investment at all times. You can also cancel your membership at any time.
At all service levels, the membership pricing is designed to deliver exponential value to you, and in turn, the value you can deliver to your customers. This said, only you can determine how to prioritise your investment expenditure.
To this end, View would welcome the opportunity to assist you outside the community environment through our array of resources ranging from weekly blogs, seminars, webinars, and books through to online education courses, podcasts and our Checklist Manifesto.
Yes. Contact us and we can share contact details for existing members. Or – simply join for a month and cancel membership as soon as you feel value equation does not work for you.
The power of the community is ultimately the flexibility and fluid approach to content shared. The core areas for each of the 3 communities are as follows – these are always subject to the feedback and contributions from community members as part of a continuing and evolving conversation.
While many ‘one way’ education programs – the community has all the conversations stored indefinitely.
There is no minimum contact time mandated. There are similarly no mandating of the way in which you are involved.
This inherent flexibility should allow you to invest to whatever level makes sense from time to time while still delivering the value you deserve from your investment.
Even when lawyers (including lawyers from View) are contributing to the community, no legal advice is being provided.
This is because legal advice always must turn on the exact factual matrix of a particular situation with direct engagement between the lawyer engaged and the underlying customer.
There are a multitude of ways for members to get legal advice as and when they need it – ultimately, the mastermind community is about asking the right questions as opposed to locking in on any particular answers.
For the current alternatives to the monthly membership please see this article.
Absolutely – only members of the community can access the discussion threads and content.
Similarly, only members of the community know who other members are.
There are three communities hosted by View, namely:
If you would like to be a member of more than one platform, please contact us and we will agree a pricing approach that is fair for all.
See also the FAQ for ‘Why do I have to join the adVIEWser community in a category other than free?‘
In a word, yes.
In saying this, you may be able to skip sitting the entry exam.
Simply email us at [email protected] with your request.
The AdVIEWser community is designed to help all advisers be on a pathway of continuous improvement in the estate planning space.
Behavioural economics confirms that the relatively small monthly financial commitment, in comparison to the value offered at each service level, will help all advisers commit to the community. With only committed advisers in the community, the quality of interaction and knowledge sharing should continue to improve, for the benefit of all advisers and in turn customers.
See also the FAQ ‘What do I need to contribute?‘.
Unless a special exemption is granted, each adviser must pass the accreditation exam with a zero error rate.
See also the FAQ titled ‘I’m a regular and long-standing adviser with View – do I really need to be accredited?‘.
In addition to the features set out in each category of the AdVIEWser community, the benefits of accreditation include:
As an accredited adviser with View’s facilitated estate planning platform, your customers will be assured of the level of commitment and specialisation you have in providing value in the estate planning space.
In January 2020, NowInfinity and View Legal agreed to terminate the merged digital business unit and strategic legal services arrangements jointly announced in 2017. No further comments will be made by either party in relation to the decision.
Each adviser who is submitting instructions on behalf of a customer must use their own accreditation number.
Where an adviser has another team member submitting instructions, that team member may use the accreditation number of the adviser that they are working with, without themselves being accredited.
The structure of these catch ups are at your discretion.
Some examples include:
(a) exploring content from a previous View webinar;
(b) tailored training on a topic of interest;
(c) exploring a client case study;
(d) a ‘before action review’ (ie full planning exercise) for an upcoming event the firm is presenting;
(e) attending an internal View team training.
