PROGRAM & SESSIONS

Technical excellence can build a career. Turning that expertise into an enterprise requires an entirely different set of skills.

Pete Evans began as an extraordinarily capable chef and restaurateur, but his career ultimately expanded far beyond the kitchen — into restaurants, television, publishing, media, products, brand building and entrepreneurship.

At Ascend26, Pete joins Hamish McLachlan for a candid conversation about what happens when a great technician decides to build something bigger around their craft.

They will explore the lessons Pete learned about backing yourself, taking calculated risks, building a brand, attracting an audience, making difficult commercial decisions, knowing what to say no to and continually reinventing yourself as circumstances change.

For advisers, the parallels are powerful. Being excellent at advice is the foundation, but building a great advice business requires the technician to increasingly think and act as an entrepreneur and manager.

This is a conversation about making that transition deliberately — and understanding what becomes possible when technical capability is no longer the ceiling on the business you can build.

Great businesses, like great teams, are built when leadership becomes a behaviour rather than a title.

Few people have lived that principle as consistently as Joel Selwood.

As the longest-serving captain in VFL/AFL history, Joel spent almost two decades inside one of Australian sport’s most successful high-performance environments, learning what it takes to create standards, build trust, bring people with you and perform when expectations are at their highest.

At Ascend26, Joel joins Hamish McLachlan for a candid conversation about leadership, culture, people, change and high performance plus the lessons that extend well beyond football.

For advice business owners making the transition from technician to entrepreneur and manager, leadership increasingly becomes the job. The question is no longer simply, “How well can I perform?” but “How do I create an environment in which other people can perform at their best?”

Expect a deeply practical conversation about standards, accountability, resilience, difficult moments and the responsibility leaders carry for the people around them.

Hosted by Keith Cullen, leading personal risk specialist PJ Byrne will take delegates inside the anatomy of a real claim through a professionally produced case study following one of the most difficult circumstances an adviser can encounter.

The session will trace the client journey from the advice that was originally put in place, through an unexpected and tragic change in circumstances, to the practical and financial impact of having the right protection in place when it mattered most.

PJ will unpack the thinking behind the original insurance strategy, the claims process and the adviser’s role throughout.

He will then be joined by Richard Leal, Managing Director of LINK Wealth, to explore what happens next — and the critical interplay between personal insurance and wealth management when a claim is paid and a family’s entire financial position suddenly changes.

Together, PJ, Richard and Keith will examine why the best client outcomes often depend on risk specialists and wealth advisers working as one team: getting the protection strategy right before the event, navigating the claim properly, and then helping the client or family make sound decisions about capital, income, superannuation, investments and their longer-term financial future.

This is not simply a technical insurance session.

It is a powerful demonstration of why quality advice matters, why personal protection belongs inside a comprehensive financial strategy, and why advisers should have enormous confidence in the value they bring to clients and families.

For the technician, the lesson is about getting the strategy right. For the entrepreneur and manager, it is about building a business with the capability, collaboration and conviction to support clients through the moments when advice matters most.

Pricing Confidence starts with evidence. Advisers know intuitively that quality advice makes a difference — but the strongest client propositions are built when that belief can be backed by data, explained simply and translated into a value proposition clients immediately understand.

Lachlan Reardon brings powerful NMG research comparing the outcomes and behaviours of advised and non-advised consumers across both wealth management and personal risk protection.

The numbers tell an important story. Quality advice does not simply help clients make better financial decisions; it can materially change the way they build wealth, manage risk, prepare for uncertainty and protect the people who depend on them.

But the real opportunity for advisers is what they do with that evidence.

Lachlan will explore how research can be turned into a sharper client proposition, stronger personal positioning and far greater confidence in answering the questions every adviser ultimately faces:

Why should I choose you? What difference will your advice actually make? And why is it worth what you charge?

For the technician, the data validates the work. For the entrepreneur and manager, it becomes a commercial asset — helping position the practice, communicate value more clearly, strengthen client conversations and support sustainable pricing.

This is a session about turning evidence into conviction: giving advisers stronger language, stronger positioning and stronger Pricing Confidence when explaining the enduring value of quality advice.

Enterprise Value & Succession begins long before someone decides they want to sell.

A valuable advice business is one that can operate, grow and ultimately transfer value beyond the individual adviser who created it.

Hosted by Hamish McLachlan, this session brings together David McLean, Eric Bohl, James Mousa, Jose Pais and Jeff Stella for a practical discussion about what actually creates transferable value in an advice business — and what destroys it.

The conversation will explore the transition from technician to entrepreneur and manager through the lens of succession: building management capability, developing people, reducing dependence on the founder, creating repeatable systems, strengthening client relationships, making deliberate ownership decisions and understanding the options available when the next generation of leadership or ownership arrives.

This is not simply a discussion about selling businesses.

It is about building businesses worth succeeding.

Whether an owner ultimately sells, transitions internally, brings in partners or continues operating for many years, the same disciplines that create succession options also tend to create better businesses today.

For advisers focused on Enterprise Value & Succession, this session will examine how to turn years of personal effort and technical expertise into something that can genuinely endure — and ultimately unlock the value that has been built.

Pricing Confidence sits at the heart of a sustainable advice business. Great technicians understand the technical value of the advice they provide; great entrepreneurs and managers know how to translate that value into a clear, repeatable commercial proposition.

Marshall Ross tackles one of the most fundamental commercial questions in risk advice: what should you charge, and how confidently can you explain why?

In The Price is Right, Ross will examine how advisers actually arrive at a fee for risk advice, why some practices price with far greater confidence than others, and what separates a considered pricing model from a number chosen by instinct, comparison or fear of client pushback.

He will be joined by an adviser already doing it well to unpack the numbers, the client conversation and the discipline required to set a fee, communicate the value behind it and hold the line when challenged.

This is a practical session about turning technical expertise into commercial confidence — strengthening Pricing Confidence today while building a more sustainable and valuable advice business over time.

Pricing Confidence grows when advisers can clearly demonstrate the value their advice creates. For the technician, that starts with understanding the technical risk. For the entrepreneur and manager, it means recognising the broader client need and turning technical expertise into a compelling advice proposition.

Adam Crabbe brings new global Zurich research, benchmarked against Australia, to a growing challenge that many clients have barely begun to contemplate: the gap between living longer and living well.

In Chronic Care, Adam will examine the financial consequences of Australians spending more of their later years in poor health, while government safety nets meet considerably less of that cost than many clients assume.

He will explore what that means for TPD and trauma sums insured, future health and aged-care costs, and how advisers can turn complex risk modelling into conversations clients genuinely understand.

Importantly, this opportunity extends well beyond risk specialists. For wealth advisers, conversations about longevity, health and protection can uncover previously unrecognised needs, deepen existing relationships and create natural Lead Flow into broader advice.

Ultimately, Adam’s session is about using evidence to build Pricing Confidence — giving advisers stronger proof of why comprehensive advice matters and greater confidence in articulating the value they create.

Enterprise Value is built one durable client relationship at a time. A technician can explain the policy. An entrepreneur and manager understands that the real challenge is protecting the client, preserving trust and building a relationship capable of surviving difficult conversations.

As the cost of insurance rises, more clients are asking to reduce or cancel cover. Scott Hoger’s Cancel Culture looks beyond the cancellation request itself and asks what great advisers do differently when a client says: “I can’t afford this anymore.”

Rather than simply defending the existing policy, Scott will work through an options-based approach that helps clients understand the trade-offs between affordability, need and protection before making a decision that may be difficult or impossible to reverse.

Handled well, these conversations can protect clients, reduce adviser risk and strengthen trust at precisely the moment the relationship is under the greatest pressure.

For practices focused on Enterprise Value & Succession, there is a broader commercial lesson. A valuable advice business is not simply a collection of recurring revenue streams. It is a collection of durable client relationships — and their true strength is often revealed when circumstances change and the client starts questioning the price.