Client Stories

Our financial advice business clients are all unique but they have one thing in common; building their team with 5 ELK was one of the best business decisions they’ve ever made! You can read some of their stories below.

We couldn’t recommend 5ELK highly enough. The culture within the 5ELK team is extremely professional. Above all, the staff members are happy and are clearly well supported in their working environment. We could not hope to replicate the level of training that is provided to our off-shore staff members for the roles that they perform. We will be working with 5ELK for many years to come.

Tim Henry
Aspire Planning

Aspire Planning accepted that hiring remotely was the best way forward

About Aspire Planning

Aspire Planning is a financial advisory firm based in Melbourne that empowers its clients by helping them define and reach their financial goals.

By challenging the conventional methods of financial advice, Aspire have successfully established themselves as one of Australia’s most forward thinking advisory firms.

The Challenge

Although an increase in demand for their services was welcomed by Aspire, it did cause a knock on effect in their business which had to be addressed.

As staff members began taking on more responsibility to cope with the growing workload, gaps started appearing in the firm’s administrative processes. An ever-increasing number of compliance hoops to jump through — combined with COVID lockdowns — meant resources were being stretched thin, causing Aspire to rethink how it conducted business.

The solution

Accepting that hiring remotely was the best way forward, Aspire Planning approached us to find two administrative experts that could quickly find their feet in a fast paced environment. We scoured our talent pool to identify the perfect candidates that not only had the necessary experience and skill set Aspire were looking for, but also the same shared values too.

The results

The two new Aspire team members settled in seamlessly, taking on their administrative roles with ease and enabling the onshore team to focus on higher-value tasks. As well as helping Aspire solve their talent shortage, we also helped them implement inhouse IT changes to improve their cybersecurity — something they needed assistance with now their team was growing.

Like all our partners, Aspire are excited to discover what the future holds now they have seen the positive impact our outsourcing solutions can bring.

We had heard about the benefits of offshoring and specifically 5 ELK, and somehow 5 ELK managed to exceed the expectations that we had of them. They are the epitome of a well-oiled machine, delivering an incredible client experience. We would give 6 stars out of a possible 5 if we could.

Leong Tang
Callaghans

Established business finally solves their recruitment challenges

About Callaghans

Callaghans is a Canberra-based accounting firm that has been helping businesses and individuals with their tax and advisory needs for the last 45 years.

Their team of 20+ financial experts focus heavily on building long-lasting relationships with their clients to deliver outstanding results that help them stay ahead of the curve.

The Challenge

Like many other Australian businesses, Callaghans was having a hard time identifying talent for certain positions.

Even when they found candidates they were happy with, the repetitive nature of the admin role they were hiring for caused a higher staff turnover than usual. Spending too much time hiring and training staff, only for them to leave prematurely, was starting to stunt business growth.

The team at Callaghans realised that something had to give, as they had tried a range of ways to recruit, with little success.

The solution

Upon deciding to give outsourcing a shot, Callaghans engaged our services, but they were unsure of what to expect. We went away and identified a candidate who we felt was the perfect fit for what Callaghans were looking for — and we were right.

The results

After initially being given small compliance-based tasks to complete, Callaghans’ new team member quickly progressed and was soon given responsibility for preparing ROAs and implementing advice and as is so often the case, Callaghans have already hired their second 5 ELK team member.

Mahar and Associates

We have been blown away by the services of 5Elk. From the first contact through to finding a team member that was a perfect fit for our business. Five stars from us!

Traci Bartlett
FM Mahar Financial Planning

Harder than ever to find good staff

About FM Mahar Financial Planning 

The team at FM Mahar advice have a client-first approach in everything they do. They are an ambitious and successful team who partner with their clients over the long term, advising and supporting them through important life changes and transitions.

The Challenge

For FM Mahar, being based in a regional area means that the talent pool for Australian team members is limited.

Prior to working with us, they had several unsuccessful attempts at hiring university graduates to work in their back-office. But they found that the ‘impatience of youth’ was hurting them, with ambitious expectations of salary and career progression creating high turnover in their team. This consistent ‘chopping and changing’ of staff created a culture of “it’s just easier if I do it myself”. The result of this was a backlog of new business and paperwork, with advisers being forced to wear too many hats to keep the business moving. 

The team at FM Mahar were starting to feel burnout, and something needed to change.

The solution

We secured a great team member for FM Mahar, who replaced an onshore team member with 10 years of financial planning industry experience. This new team member was the perfect fit and within the first few months, they were handling their role in its entirety. The success of their first hire saw them hire a second offshore team member only six months later.

The results

Working with 5 ELK hasn’t just made FM Mahar more profitable, but it has brought more stability to their back-office and kept their Australian team ‘sane’ by not forcing them to wear so many hats. Their onshore team are now focused on what they do best, with full confidence that their 5 ELK team are doing their job well.

Hillross

5 ELK honestly uphold the most amazing program for support staff, I cannot speak highly enough of them. Our business has been working with 5 ELK for a few years now and we would not be able to cope without our three amazing girls working for us! Not only are they incredibly reliable members to have on our team, but they have also truly changed the way we run our business by increasing the efficiency of our business and providing outstanding administration services.

Before we started working with our three girls, they went through in-house training to ensure that when they begin with us, they are upskilled and tailored to our business needs. The support provided by the whole 5 ELK organisation is amazing and if we need additional team members in the future, we will absolutely without hesitation be getting another employee through 5Elk.

Thank you for opening our eyes and minds to the possibility of what can be achieved by working with such a valuable organisation, I highly recommend to anyone seeking additional support for their business to contact Danielle and the 5 ELK team – you won’t regret it and the possibilities will be endless with what you and your business can achieve with their assistance!

Dannae Woolman
HILLROSS HORSHAM

Compliance creating bottlenecks

About Hillross Horsham & Geelong

Hillross Horsham & Geelong are a highly experienced financial advice team, with over 25 years of industry experience. Hillross have a strong focus on community and are known for their highly personal and tailored approach to financial advice.

 The challenge

The ever-increasing burden of compliance saw Hillross Horsham and Geelong become bogged down by compliance and paperwork. Their business was growing strongly, but bottlenecks in their back office meant that client onboarding was slower than ever and their review process was also getting too labour-intensive. Their advisers were stressed by the extra burden they were being forced to shoulder and frustrated by how hard it was to ‘do business’.

The solution

As is the case with many businesses, their first 5 ELK team member hire became the first of many, as they unlocked the bottlenecks that were slowing down their business growth, while discovering how capable their new offshore team actually was. This saw their 5 ELK team start to take on tasks such as SOA research and paraplanning.

The results

Fast forward to today, and Hillross Horsham and Geelong no longer require outsourced paraplanning, as their 5 ELK team now do most of the heavy lifting here. Their offshore team are able to deliver over 60 ROAs per month for existing clients, on top of their daily administration tasks. It has also pleased both us and Hillross to see their 5 ELK team find and create further back-office efficiencies which have been implemented across the Australian operation as well.

With an increased ability for their Australian team to focus on growing and nurturing relationships, Hillross’ team and clients have never been happier.

We have 2 full time 5ELK team members and they work together so well to bring value to our business. They learn quickly and complete the work we require to a high standard. They are lovely people and very enthusiastic about their job. I believe communication is very important when offshoring work and we talk to our 5ELK team via Zoom most days so that we all feel part of one team working together to service our clients needs.

Tanya Oddo
Steps Financial

We have been blown away by the services of 5Elk. From the first contact through to finding a team member that was a perfect fit for our business. Five stars from us!

Traci Bartlett
FM Mahar Financial Planning

We had heard about the benefits of offshoring and specifically 5 ELK, and somehow 5 ELK managed to exceed the expectations that we had of them. They are the epitome of a well-oiled machine, delivering an incredible client experience. We would give 6 stars out of a possible 5 if we could.

Leong Tang
Callaghans

We have been amazed by the level of detail and knowledge that Danielle has regarding what goes on in a Financial Planning business. This is helping us immeasurably in focusing on the services that our clients want and to also improve our team within our office.

Tyrone Wiseman
Wiseman Financial Services

Our team with 5 ELK enable our processes to operate smoothly, with tasks that don’t require face to face contact completed quickly and efficiently. 5 ELK remove the uncertainty involved with hiring staff by handling recruitment, motivation, training, healthcare, payroll, security, team-building, holidays and IT infrastructure. I highly recommend 5 ELK to enhance your business processes, increase your profit and reduce your stress.

Nick Girle
CommonCents Financial Planning

5 ELK helped us streamline our systems and processes and remove ourselves from the grunt work, much quicker than we expected. This has allowed us to scale up and employ more income-generating staff, which has had a profound effect on our bottom line. None of it would have ever been possible without the support of the team at 5 ELK.

James Millard
Sufficient Funds

We couldn’t recommend 5ELK highly enough. The culture within the 5ELK team is extremely professional. Above all, the staff members are happy and are clearly well supported in their working environment. We could not hope to replicate the level of training that is provided to our off-shore staff members for the roles that they perform. We will be working with 5ELK for many years to come.

Tim Henry
Aspire Planning

Within three months of beginning to use 5 ELK we have one 5 ELK staff member working with six Advisers to undertake more than half of our business requirement for a particular process. We could not be happier with how the relationship is progressing.

Lena Ridley
Profile Financial Services

We would not be able to cope without our three amazing girls working for us through 5 ELK… they have truly changed the way we run our business. The possibilities will be endless with what you and your business can achieve with their assistance!

Dannae Woolman
Hillross Horsham

I am completely loving the outsourcing solution offered by 5 ELK. They recruited and trained a lovely new team member for me who has now taken over many of the tasks and at a fraction of the cost, allowing me to put on a new adviser to further grow my business. They took all the pressure of training off me and found someone that truly suits how we do business. The ongoing education options for the staff is also brilliant and super helpful. I can’t recommend Danielle and the team enough.

Amanda Cassar
Wealth Planning Partners

Working with 5 ELK is one of the best business decisions we have made. The capacity they have freed up in our business is incredible. This has been a real game-changer for our business…couldn’t recommend them highly enough!

Sam Carroll
Talem Wealth