Article 5 in a series of 5 Articles
The famous ABBA song speaks the truth, but only partly. Clear Waters Financial Planning won the battle against EFP but we did not emerge unscathed. Our business was wounded and carried scars inflicted not only in the period since September 2012, but since the beginning of our franchise contract in 2007.
Those long years of conflict with EFP over their terms and conditions – the sheer inequity of it all – drained energy and income from the business and thus heightened the impact of what we term their final assault on our business. This final assault began with the court injunction upon us to cease all activity with our clients together with the removal of client files and computers from our office.
This was followed by five months of acute harassment – September 2012 to end of January 2013 – by the person we fondly called the Wind Tunnel. This was our spurious name for the head of their legal department. The designation may not have been polite but it served our wacky sense of humour which saved us from succumbing to the ordeal we had to endure.
The injunction against us created an amount of havoc among our clients: some demanded their files back from EFP, others kept contacting us seeking clarification and answers while others took their business elsewhere, namely to another adviser in Rockhampton who had previously been under the employ of TFS in a managerial role, and who had a level of relationship with many clients.
On an almost daily basis we were served letters of demand from Wind Tunnel and his scribes, laying upon us the burden and the considerable expense of responding via our own legal representatives.
The end result of all of this – including mediation meetings both interstate and in Brisbane – was a debilitating loss of income. When the final assault began we had zero dollars in our coffers to launch any semblance of defence while paying our staff … and ourselves.
Following the court case in early 2013, it took almost two years for us to recover that income stream, in fact to recover our business fully.
When we did restart the engine of our business we were unable to retrieve the client files and the history of client advice through our online storage system. These files and the information stored on computers remained the property of EFP. The loss of client history – extensive file notes, details of strategies in place as well as basic personal information – meant we restarted with a blank page.
A further impediment to the restoration of our business was the actual physical loss of some clients, both permanent and temporary.
There were some former clients who did not re-connect with us. Due to the harsh restraint placed upon us in September 2012 following the removal of files from our office, and due to the intense scrutiny we were under from EFP regarding contact with clients, we were not able to explain clearly to many clients what had happened nor could we guarantee our futures in financial planning. In their not understanding our predicament, some people were confused and upset.
Some other clients, particularly older ones, did understand our predicament and expressed deep empathy. At the same time they recognized a risk and chose to sell down their investments into cash.
Our court “win” had a sting in the tail. In essence there was a raft of clients that were hindered from returning to our advice for a period of two years, until September 2014. Hence our first celebrations for Clear Waters Financial Planning was the second birthday.
There was no winner take all.
