What if building wealth had nothing to do with how much you earn? Beyond money—and into mindset. In this episode, Juanita Wrenn breaks down the real game. Juanita shares how her early exposure to financial instability shaped a lifelong mission: to never let money dictate her life. From raising four children while running a financial firm, to building a business that blends human insight with AI, Juanita offers a grounded perspective on what wealth really means. The conversation explores why most people fail to build wealth (despite knowing what to do), the underestimated power of starting early, and how financial advice is less about products—and entirely about people.
What if building wealth had nothing to do with how much you earn? Beyond money—and into mindset.
In this episode, Juanita Wrenn breaks down the real game. Shares how her early exposure to financial instability shaped a lifelong mission: to never let money dictate her life. From raising four children while running a financial firm, to building a business that blends human insight with AI, Juanita offers a grounded perspective on what wealth really means.
The conversation explores why most people fail to build wealth (despite knowing what to do), the underestimated power of starting early, and how financial advice is less about products—and entirely about people.
Reach out to Juanita:
Website - hudsonfinancialplanning.com.au
Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/juanita-wrenn-6a22511a9/
Key Topics
The importance of purpose in financial decisions
Balancing family life with a career in finance
The role of AI and technology in future advice
Strategies for wealth accumulation and early start
The human element in trust and client relationships
Sound Bites
"Money is about understanding yourself."
"Start early, compound interest is magic."
"People are more important than products."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Wynita Wrenn and Family Dynamics
03:00 Balancing Work and Family Life
05:53 The Journey into Financial Planning
08:54 Understanding Money and Behavioral Finance
12:04 The Importance of Knowing Your 'Why'
14:53 The Role of Personal Connection in Financial Advice
18:06 The Technical vs. Personal Approach in Finance
21:11 Empowering Clients Through Understanding
24:14 The Power of Early Investment
24:30 The Power of Compounding and Early Saving
30:13 Mindset Shift: From Spending to Investing
36:03 Teaching Financial Literacy to the Next Generation
39:43 Business Growth and Strategic Decisions
01:00:14 The Future of Financial Advice: Balancing Technology and Humanity
The Priority Lane (00:05)
Welcome to the Priority Lane podcast, the show where we learn how to work smarter, not faster. I'm your host, Nigel Catt, and today we're joined by Juanita Wrenn. Juanita is the Managing Director of Hudson Financial Partners in Brisbane, a business she's been devoted to since leaving university. This devotion and a fair amount of hard work led to Juanita running the business. During her tenure as MD, Juanita has guided Hudson through one of the most dynamic periods in financial services, expanding the firm's
capabilities across every dimension of wealth management. Outside of work, Juanita is a proud mum of four, set of twin boys and a 14 year old boy and her baby girl. Welcome to the podcast, Juanita.
Juanita Wrenn (00:50)
Thank
you, Nigel, for having me.
The Priority Lane (00:52)
And how are you today? ⁓ Well, in saying that, I do know you've got a slight cold.
Juanita Wrenn (00:56)
I've been sick,
yes. I rarely get sick. So when I get sick, I'm all or nothing. I either get nothing or I get sick and I get sick. But it's just a head cold and I'm almost over it, but I'm going to sound not the best today. But I think I'm doing pretty good.
The Priority Lane (01:12)
Yeah, yeah, you're doing fine and we'll just hope you last all the way through it. ⁓ Now, okay, so four kids. Now, our last guest had four kids as well, so I don't know if it's something to do with the industry or not. ⁓ He had four boys. If I do my maths right, three boys and one girl.
Juanita Wrenn (01:16)
I hope you're
Hahaha
isn't a girl. That's right, I my little football team.
And then, and everyone
actually thinks I was trying for a girl. I I feel so blessed for better words that I have a little girl. But I was happy with my three boys. I think boys teach you how to be noisy and carefree, how to let go a bit. They're definitely a lot of noise and a lot of fun. And then I got my little girl and she's like, she makes me stop, know, and smell a flower and she makes me slow down. So she's a blessing. She's a mini me though. She's bossy and she,
The Priority Lane (02:05)
You
Juanita Wrenn (02:05)
She actually bosses
the boys more than I do. she's a beautiful little addition. And then my three boys who keep us all busy and noisy. But I actually love a busy household. We've always got someone coming and going through the house, which is lovely. I love it.
The Priority Lane (02:22)
and
creating a lot of memories, no doubt.
Juanita Wrenn (02:25)
Yeah,
yeah, it is a lot of fun and their friends come and go and it's just a, it's like a big, call it sort of the halfway house here which makes it fun.
The Priority Lane (02:34)
And so how's the group dynamic having three older boys, one then the younger girl? How do they interact? Do they pair off together or?
Juanita Wrenn (02:44)
think they
do because my older boys are 21 and they're twins and so they're close and they've gone through school together and they've got the same group of friends and then my younger two are 14 and 12 and so they sort of, they're quite close except my 14 year old boy. think he'd like to be with the 21 year olds more than the 12 year olds so but it's good and definitely my daughter she's more the matriarch than I am so it's quite good. I let her take over and I need them to do something.
The Priority Lane (02:48)
⁓ I can...
you
Juanita Wrenn (03:14)
It works out, but they fight plenty trust me and I have to break up You know some some big fights with the boys, but they're best friends two minutes later, and that's the beauty of boys I do love boys. You know they don't hold on to Yeah Yeah, exactly exactly
The Priority Lane (03:27)
Yep, yep, Thought attention span, bang, forget about it, it's gone.
Now before the podcast, I asked you about your hobbies. And I've got your response here and I'm gonna quote it back to you because I thought it was great. ⁓ Honestly, it's pretty simple. Work and whatever my kids are into that week. I'm sorry. Yep.
Juanita Wrenn (03:48)
It's true, that's 100 % right. It has to be that way. They don't give
you a chance, do they? mean, between work and whatever the kids have got on, that's pretty much my life. And I love it, I wouldn't have it any other way. I've always loved my work and then I had my kids and I found something I love more than my work. And so I divide my time between everything the kids need from me and work. And then occasionally my husband and I try and get away, but it doesn't happen as much as he'd like.
The Priority Lane (04:18)
And so you find, not only work obviously, but then you've got four kids and a husband all competing for time. How do you manage all of that?
Juanita Wrenn (04:19)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Funny, I think I don't sleep a lot. I do work, I work around my family. So I work all the time. I work more than a 40 hour week, always.
⁓ But I work, the beauty of my work is that I can get up at 6 and work before the kids are up. I can take them to school, go to work, do my meetings. The kids are old enough to get their way home. If they've got things on, I pick them up and I'll sit back down when, you know, when we all take turns at cooking dinner, so the kids will cook dinner as well. And I can work at the table. Yeah, that sounds good. I mean, that's yes. In theory. In theory. But when it does work, it's great.
The Priority Lane (04:59)
really?
You
All right.
Juanita Wrenn (05:09)
and I can work then and I can work at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night. I tend to pretty much prioritize my kids are first, well my kids and my husband and then work. And that's pretty much all I have. I work with my family. So my brother and sister work with me at work. My husband also works with me. And so work sort of encompasses my entire family. And I've always had Hudson, like it's always been sort of part of me.
The Priority Lane (05:28)
Cool. wow.
Juanita Wrenn (05:39)
And I think you've got to be like that when ⁓ you're like a founder or when it's your business. You've got to be like that because it requires so many arms in so many different directions. And I guess the beauty of my job is I don't have to be anywhere at any certain time, which makes me very fortunate as well. So I can balance and juggle my two priorities, but I don't think I could have three priorities. So if I was a really big sport fanatic or if I was really wanting netball or
The Priority Lane (05:40)
Yeah. ⁓
Juanita Wrenn (06:09)
football or whatever it might be, I think I would find it hard to balance three. I think I'm lucky because I've never really had any hobbies outside of work and the kids, apart from travel. But is that a hobby or is that just what everyone wants to do? You know, like, ⁓ travel anyway, but I don't know if I can call that a hobby.
The Priority Lane (06:21)
Yeah.
So incorporating your family into the workplace sort of solves that problem to a certain extent.
Juanita Wrenn (06:33)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's
just led that way. I think my life has just always, it's just led me on that path. And I've always been very close to my brother and sister because my parents split up when I was in high school. So the three of us remained very close throughout that. And I think that was the catalyst that got me into financial planning because I was in high school in the late 80s, early 90s. So I graduated in 93.
And that was the recession, you know, like that was the late 80s, early 90s. And that's when my parents split up. And I think I remember sitting in careers counselling and the career counsellor saying, you know, what do you want to do? And I was like, I just want to be really good at money. I never want money to control me. I just have to be the best of the best with money. need to know it, learn it, you know, live it and make sure that I'm on top of money. And I think from that moment on, that's all I've sort of ever realized.
done and I'm the oldest so I took my brother and sister sort of along with me for the ride so it's been a something that's been I guess not in my blood but in my path you know for the way my life had gone so it sort of led me to doing what I do and and ⁓ I I like and hence why I think also my kids are so important you know making sure that just because you know looking after my brother and sister when I was younger
you know the same for me now so it's funny how life can lead you a certain way and you end up that's sort of where it was always meant to lead you.
The Priority Lane (08:08)
Yeah, yeah, because you mentioned earlier ⁓ before the podcast you found you calling early. So it was basically at school just not wanting to be in control of finances and that's...
Juanita Wrenn (08:19)
Yeah, I think just not letting
money, you know, I saw it was, it was, I mean, I was a teenager, so I was a bit young, but, you know, money definitely interest rates were, you know, up around that 17, 18%, you know, and it was just a really terrible time. And for people that didn't have any sort of backing or any sort of financial,
foundation it was you know there was a lot of a lot of you know financial divorce a lot of divorces a lot of unhappiness a lot of suicides a lot of people jumping out you know windows and it was just a bad time and I just remember sitting in the careers counseling just I think before that I thought about being a psychologist and it was suddenly it was
No, need to know and learn everything it is about money so that I'm always in control. And I think it's funny because I always thought maybe a psychologist and I think that what I do, or financial planning, very, it's a blend of behavioural. Because if you don't know why you're buying a house or buying shares, if you don't understand about yourself, you're never going to be successful. Like you're never going to create wealth if you don't know why you're doing something. It's a really powerful concept, like why are you talking to
me why do you want to buy a house? Why do you want to buy an investment property? ⁓ If it's just to make money or because everyone else is doing it. You seem to, it's like when you drive out of a driveway you don't know, you've got nowhere to go. You know you sort of, you drive aimlessly, you've got no clear direction. It's a little bit the same with why you're doing something.
Why are you buying something? Why are you getting that job? Why are you at uni? Like I said to my boys, don't go to uni, like go to uni, but only if you get a degree, but do you know why? Don't just get a degree. Like why do you want that degree? Like what's calling you for it?
The Priority Lane (10:03)
Yeah.
yeah, sorry, I was just saying, it's interesting that our last guest had a background in psychology but was in finance. We discussed a lot of that and just what you mentioned about that purpose, why are you getting a mortgage, why are you getting a loan. I was just thinking when I was early 20s,
Juanita Wrenn (10:11)
Huh.
The Priority Lane (10:23)
I was working a couple of jobs and stuff and was saving up a fair bit of money and went to the bank manager and said I want to buy a property and she sat there and went through she's going Nigel she's going yeah fine I can give you a mortgage that's no problem but why why don't you go to Europe go to Europe and try and I thought okay so I didn't buy a property so I went to Europe and traveled and found my wife so I got something here
Juanita Wrenn (10:38)
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah, so that was your why. Yeah.
The Priority Lane (10:52)
Yeah, so I met her in Germany. She's from, well, she's from Melbourne. So I met her in Germany. I grew up in Sydney and then we stayed in contact and I ended up moving to Melbourne. But yeah, it's just, if she hadn't have asked that question, well, why do you want a mortgage? Why don't you just go travel? Get a mortgage whenever you want, but travel. And I guess that's changed my life.
Juanita Wrenn (11:05)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I said, yeah, I say that to young people.
Yeah, it's true. I say it to young people who come to my...
Why do you want to buy a house? I get on the property ladder, yes, you need like great, but you've got to have your own why. if you're 25 and you've got $80,000 that you saved and you're trying desperately to buy a house, but you've got to buy a house out 30 kilometres from the city, your works in the city, you're going to have, you know, you're going to suddenly have this life where you're going to be on the grind. You know, you've got to pay the mortgage, you've got to travel into the
because you can't afford to buy near the city. ⁓
have a reason why you're doing that. Like, are you wanting to in three or four years buy another property? Like, don't just buy that property, have a reason for it. Or think outside the box, which is what I love about our job. You know, rent vest, buy a property where you can afford it. Rent near the city. As long as your rent is no more or not much more than the interest that you're going to be paying on that loan, you're no worse off. Like, rent is dead money, but so is interest on that loan. That's dead money as well. And as long as you're, as long as every pay you're putting something
away or you're doing something it doesn't have to be a house just because society or because you think you need to buy a house. I've got some really wealthy happy clients who rent in their retirement they've got a lot of money they could easily buy a house but they like to move around their why or why they do things is they don't like to stay in one place for more than a couple of years but in the same like they live in Brisbane or Sydney but they might live in Brisbane and Windsor for a while and then they go and they live down at Redland Bay for a few years and they experience all different they're just they're really
they know what they like to do and they don't want to have just one house so they rent everywhere. But they've got a huge portfolio, lots of money, they could easily buy a house but that's not the life that they want. know what their why is, they know what they want and that's really powerful and that's where the psychology comes in with money I think.
The Priority Lane (13:13)
Yeah, yeah. Do you find, has that changed over years or is that still an out?
Juanita Wrenn (13:19)
Yeah,
I think it's changing. I think, you know, 30 years ago, you know, my parents and it was expected you bought the house and how many grandparents, you know, have probably been in their house for 50 or 60 years, you know, like that's, that was very common. But now I think younger people, even, know, Gen X, my Gen. ⁓
We want more from life. don't just want to be in one suburb for 50 or 60 years. And if you do, that's great as well. As long as that's what you want. As long as that's not what you think you have to do. If that's what you want, great. And often people that do that, end up with, they've got a house worth a lot of money, they've got really great super because they're usually the same sort of people that have the one job their entire life. ⁓ But the younger generation doesn't accept that anymore. They move around, they change jobs, they try different things out, they live life. ⁓
The thing with that is that you've still got to put money away, you've still got to remember that at some stage you're not going to want to have to work. You want to have control over, do I need to get up and go to work today or can I, it's rainy, I'm going to stay and watch Netflix all day. You know, to have that control and then usually you'll choose to go to work because once you've got that control or once you've got the freedom to do what you want to do, usually you choose to do. You don't choose to lie around all day.
So having that control is, know, I think what everyone wants, regardless of where they work, is to have control over their own lives. And really the only way to do that is starting early and putting some money away to be able to have that control. Otherwise you're tied to the, you you're working for the man, so to speak.
The Priority Lane (14:35)
Well, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. mean, it's all about options, isn't it? Being in a position where have options of what you want to do, which is control. I was reading on your profile on LinkedIn, you said, lesson you learned early was, where is it that great financial advice isn't about products, it's about people. Is that sort of what you're referring to here? Don't worry about the financial products or the end goal, it's what you want, it's the way.
Juanita Wrenn (15:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's true
because I can, I could tell you, you could come and sit with me and Nigel and we could talk about all the things that technically you should be doing. ⁓ And then you, but if you don't believe in them, if you don't have a reason for it, if you don't ⁓ have a really, something that you passionately want to do, even if it's be able to work three days a week or you want to go back to Europe where you first met your wife or, but that's a small thing. You know, like that's what we would call a little lifestyle blip on what we do doing for you. But it's all about you.
The Priority Lane (15:30)
you
you.
Juanita Wrenn (15:53)
I can tell you what to do, it's like personal trainer. They can tell me to work out or they can tell me to do 50 ab crunches a day and I'd have great abs, I'm sure. But I'm never gonna do that because I don't care enough and I don't buy into it at this stage because I don't have time so it's not on my priority list. So I'm never gonna do 50 a day. And so no matter what a personal trainer tells me, they're not gonna help me right now. And I think that's the same as financial planning. There's no point sitting with anyone and talking about money or putting money away.
The Priority Lane (16:11)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (16:23)
unless you already know what you're trying to do, unless you believe and buy into it, it's very behavioral because as soon as markets fall, some of the clients that have had the worst or people that I know that have lost the most money, they can't handle when markets drop and they can see their portfolio dropping. It's going to come back up and you just say, even if you give it a week, it's going to go back up.
The Priority Lane (16:47)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (16:48)
And that's heartbreaking. I don't, when I was advising, I don't advise at the moment, my team do. You've got to do PDLs, a whole lot of things to keep advising. I'm too busy to do all that. So I've got an amazing team that do it. But when I was doing it, I only used to take clients on. I'd basically sit and I'd say to them, if I take you on, you have to do what I say or it's never going to work. You know, like for you to be successful, we have to work together. You have to believe in what you're doing. And I have to know why.
and what you want to get out of it. So yeah, it is about people and it's about thinking outside the box because you're different to me, different to your sister, everyone's different and the technical is all the same and that's why a really good advisor or even a really good accountant but a really good advisor will have an amazing paraplanner who's really technical, who does all the detail, who's brilliant at the, because the technical is all the same, doesn't matter who you are, the technical is the same, legislation is the same, the rules are the same.
is always going to be the same, but it's what I can do for you, what are the nuances about your position, about your tax position, about your income, about how you live and all the other things that come into your life that I can, I guess, capitalise on to make your position better. So it's thinking outside the box, using the rules, but thinking outside the box for every single person who's different. And it's having advisors who can do that, because advisors to me are either technicians, which they're better at as paraplanners,
Or they love people and they get energy from people and they know just from an hour or half an hour with you that you know you're very family even just talking to you briefly before you love your family you work with your family like I do and so one thing that we would talk about straight away is we'd look at your end goal your testamentary trust your you know could we do something for your grandchildren where they're going to have a trust that's not going to pay any tax because clearly family is very important so I probably start backwards with someone like you.
because already I know that you love your family so much and we'd look at okay so everything you've built now where's the end goal and can we make that really strategic and then we work backwards but if you had no family or you were talking about traveling all the time you know I'd start talking to you about lifestyle what sort of lifestyle do you want Nigel and so it's all about people rather than technical because you can go to you can go to AI now and you can find anything you want to about technical you can ask Claude or Chad
The Priority Lane (19:13)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (19:17)
or any other AI, and they're amazing, any of the legislation rules, but it's knowing how to use them and how to think outside the box with them. And having someone like me or someone, an advisor, who's going to sit on you and check on you and make sure you're doing what you should be doing to get you where you want to be. And where you want to be is different to where I want to be or, you know, your next door neighbour wants to be. So it's very individualised.
The Priority Lane (19:45)
So, yes, so what would you say, what, 80 % is getting to know the client and getting to know where they want to be?
Juanita Wrenn (19:51)
Yes.
100
% because you can do so much the technical yourself you really can and you can and the para planners will do a lot of their technical so for you and I if we were if you were my client now we would pretty much talk about your life and what you like for 80 % of the time and then towards the end I'd tell you the different strategies that I'm thinking of for you that are going to really help you get there and then my para planner would then go and put all the because I hate detail you know like I'm a terrible detail terrible terrible but I know I know that about myself you know and
The Priority Lane (20:20)
You
Yep.
Juanita Wrenn (20:23)
And I think when you... I know as long as you know your faults right you get people around you who've got that
The Priority Lane (20:23)
As long as you know it. Yeah, yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (20:28)
covered and that's I've done that really well I've got a really good team around me who know well I know my faults and they now know them as well ⁓ and I fill in their gap because I'm really good at being bossy and I'm happy to be bossy and and some people aren't happy to be bossy you know they're not happy to get someone to do something for them I love getting someone to do something for me it's my you know delegate all the way but ⁓ but yeah so
So I think when you've got a great paraplanner and an advisor who's really good at just reading the play or reading the room, you've got to, you know, it's a dynamic team. You can't beat it.
The Priority Lane (21:03)
Okay, that's interesting. Well by the sounds of it, your daughter can take over. ⁓
Juanita Wrenn (21:08)
Oh, you know
what though, she wants to be a vet. She loves animals. Yeah, I know. Although she's only 12, you know, I'm hoping to get her. None of my kids want to go into finance. It's fascinating. I know, I could give them all a great job. know, they're not interested. I know. Do you know what? I feel like I've done a good job because they're... I feel like they're following their own...
The Priority Lane (21:13)
You
I like it. Really?
how does that affect you psychologically knowing that no one wants to follow mum?
You
Juanita Wrenn (21:38)
what they want at this point. They don't need to please me. They're doing what they want. Yeah, exactly. Maybe I'm never enough on them, Nigel. Maybe all the times they roll their eyes at me, they're actually listening to me. You never know.
The Priority Lane (21:39)
Well, that's the most important thing, isn't it? Well, that's just what we've been talking about the last 10 minutes.
Now have you seen The Matrix? The movie?
Juanita Wrenn (21:57)
do know what? It's
my husband's favourite movies. yes, but... Yeah, he loves them. He loves them. He loves them all. The Keanu Reeves one, isn't it? Is that the Keanu Reeves? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He loves them. look, I'm sure I have, but if you ask me to remember anything in it... I watch a movie and I forget it within half an hour of watching it. Like, water in, water out.
The Priority Lane (22:00)
Really?
I've seen part of it. ⁓ tell the truth, I wasn't a fan. So I got distracted and started doing something else. But there was one moment in there where, what's his name, Neo, he has the red pill and he has that and ⁓ he finally sees how things really work.
Juanita Wrenn (22:24)
No, yeah.
The Priority Lane (22:39)
how it all fits together. Yeah, so what's the one piece of knowledge or understanding you wish more clients had, their red pill moment, what's one thing that you wish people had about finance?
Juanita Wrenn (22:40)
just wouldn't remember that part. Yeah.
Oh, yeah,
love that. Start when you're 18, $10 a month, $50 a month. You know, if you put...
I'm passionate about this with my kids too. so $25, $100 away and you do nothing else, by the time you're 45, you want 30 years of that, so by the time you're 55, sorry, so 30 years, you would have, hang I've got to think about this.
Yes, I'm right. Okay, so I'm just going to from 25 if you invested that $100 a month for 40 years, that's only $48,000 that you've put away, but that would be worth a million dollars to you. So for $48,000. So if I'd started when I was 25 putting $100 away by the time I'm 65, so 15 years away, I'd have a million dollars waiting for me in with inflation with everything so a million dollars in today.
dollar, but I would have only had to have put away $48,000. If I waited just 10 years and didn't start that till I was 35, I'd only have about $350,000. and I still would have, and I would have put away $36,000.
So compounding is just compounding is magic and anyone under the age of 25 or 30 if they could just do one thing and just add a little bit extra to super $50 a month to super extra and I know super is not I know super I know anything where the government can change rules like superannuation is scary and daunting for people because you're sort of you're putting it in the hands of the government it is still an attractive vehicle even if they keep changing the rules it's still an attractive vehicle and the best thing about super
especially for someone like me who likes to travel as soon as I've got spare money. You can't touch it, you know, and so having that money in super is brilliant for someone like me. But compounding, that's a huge thing, start early. my only other thing is that every time you get paid, change your mindset. You're getting paid to chase bills.
that money is a resource. Use that money to make more money. So even if you start with $10 every pay, if you make it a habit, it becomes like what I imagine going to the gym for some people, where you just have to do it to feel good. If you can start making saving a habit, you are always going to be wealthy. Some of my wealthiest clients, I'm not kidding, I've got a client who retired in his 60s, school teacher for 40 years up in North Queensland.
The Priority Lane (25:09)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (25:25)
great salary you know just over 40 years but he bought a number of houses in Brisbane back in the 90s and also super at the being a teacher for 40 years ⁓ as well as shares and different IPOs along the way I think he got into the CBA IPO ⁓ and he retired with millions and millions of dollars ⁓ just that slow and steady you know that slow and steady always saved always bought something and it sounds boring but it's
The Priority Lane (25:42)
All right, okay.
Juanita Wrenn (25:55)
It's what it is every month, but it's a mindset. You've got to stop chasing bills and
You know, like don't buy the junk fashion, you know, the $20 dress or the thing from Temu whatever it might be. All you're doing when you do that is you're making the company owners rich. Become the company owner, buy a share in Tmoo, buy a share in, I don't know, what's it, Supre or Doddy or Glassons or whatever the latest clothing stores are. You know, everybody's spending their 20 and $30. Instead of doing that, put 20 or $30 into becoming a share owner, you know, and buy a stock on the share market.
So change your mindset. ⁓ Become a company owner. Don't make the company owners rich. You become one of the company owners. And every month, pay yourself. Pay your future self. ⁓ I remember I had this great mentor when I was young and he said to me, ⁓ this is before AI, but he was like, put a picture.
somewhere that's an old person that reminds you of yourself. This is before AI. And imagine that person is you and imagine that person with millions of dollars. You can do that now if you start putting money away. Visualise yourself as an older person.
I don't know about you Nigel but I never see myself as an older person. I don't know, like I never, you know, if you did an AI photo of me when I was in my 60s or 70s, it just wouldn't feel like it was me. It's like you don't, I don't think the humour, I don't think, I don't think we're able to visual, to think of ourselves as that 65 year old person down the track. But if you could, imagine what you could do for that person. It's hard to get your head around, but it's...
The Priority Lane (27:36)
Yeah, yeah, because I, yeah, it is,
it is. And also, I'm speaking to a lot of people like our age and it's, I remember being say 30 years younger and thinking like when my parents were my age now, I used to think they were really old and yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm waiting, I'm waiting to get old, but because I'm thinking.
Juanita Wrenn (27:40)
Yeah.
Yeah. ⁓ god, so old. I know. I know.
I know, it's so true. I know. This can't be
me.
I stand up and I'm like, oh, I'm getting old. like, my bones are creaking. I'm like, no, no, I've travel to do. Yeah. But if I could, but if I, if I had to visualize myself now, when I was 20, I can, you know, when I was 20, I would have thought 50, Oh God, I'll be, you know, I'll be in a nursing home. I won't be traveling or doing anything at that age. So if I knew at 20, how I feel now at 50, then I would have been putting way more money away for myself now.
The Priority Lane (28:27)
Yes.
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (28:37)
you're
lovely. I wouldn't be sitting here doing a podcast with you if I put all my money where when I was 20 I'd be traveling somewhere you know. Actually that's not fair.
The Priority Lane (28:44)
I remember when I
was still at school, maybe 17, 18, I decided I was going to get married when I was 27 and in November.
Juanita Wrenn (28:57)
⁓
yes! That's good.
The Priority Lane (29:00)
Because I thought
that, well, thought, well 27, I've done everything I wanted to do by that stage.
Juanita Wrenn (29:05)
Yeah, you'll be old by then. You'll be old by then. You'll be ready to settle down and
put your slippers on. And yeah, don't. I know, don't. It's awful. I'm just like, no, I'm not old. That's all right. I get it from my kids all the time. So it's all right. I'm used to it. But no, it's true. If you could visualize yourself then though, to now, wouldn't you love to have just put every month just something away somewhere that you never touched?
The Priority Lane (29:13)
Yeah. Now you
I heard something like that or similar when I started working and I thought whatever the amount was, I thought well that's not too much, I'll do that later. I'll speed that up. Yeah, never happened.
Juanita Wrenn (29:43)
Yeah, I know. And later never comes. I know.
And I
wish I'd started earlier. I think with that example I gave earlier, I think if you're 50 and you start and you want that same sort of money, I think it's something like $6,500 a month you've got to do instead of $100. You know, so it becomes, you can actually work out the figures, but I think to try and get that much money into your super instead of that $100 a month example from 25, if you wait till you're 50, it suddenly it has to be $6,500 a month. And that's just into your super and that doesn't take into account everything else. You know, and you know what it's like in your 30s and 40s.
You've got kids, there's school fees, your parents need more of you. It's busy decades, I think, in your 30s and 40s.
The Priority Lane (30:26)
Yeah,
and look, and yeah, you're right, and going from being an individual just yourself, where you just worry about yourself, and then, you know, you can keep an on the bank account, everything else, then all of a sudden, there's family, there's kids, there's everything, and you think, well, sort of, what's the point? You know, there's money going out everywhere. You know, I can't control this.
Juanita Wrenn (30:32)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yep. Yep.
No, and it's hard if you're not in the mindset of saving it also it's very hard to think I've got I've got to I can't do that because I've got to put this money away or that you know it's like I don't really need to put that money away this month it won't make any difference this month I'll keep that money because we've got to buy more school uniforms or we've got to do this or it's very it can be very hard to continue doing it it's a it's a real discipline and it's and I'm going to admit I I didn't I've definitely had years where I didn't do it ⁓ because life got busy and I just kept thinking I'll go back to it I'll be fine you know I'll I'll get
back to it and now yeah yeah yeah yeah no god and now I'm like okay I wish I'd done it but but but if I if I could impart anything to kids it's as early as you can start because then it does become something that you can't stop I have one friend only so Gen X's are not good at this but I have one friend only who she she almost physically yeah I know
The Priority Lane (31:17)
I'll never be that fifty-five year old person.
You
It's that much you only have one friend ever.
Juanita Wrenn (31:44)
I don't have many these days, Nigel. I don't have time. But I've only
got one acquaintance now. I've only got one person my age who I know who actually gets almost like a physiological response when she doesn't put some money away. It's like she's so and her parents did that with them, which was I've always been really impressed. Her parents had very huge money mindset. Mine didn't. And they instilled from her from a very early age. It's basically because it's like, I don't know,
The Priority Lane (31:50)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (32:13)
part of her, has to put money away and when she doesn't, if she doesn't do it, she actually has like a physiological reaction. So it's great though because she has saved and she's definitely not tight, you know, because you can put that along with sometimes with people who aren't very generous or who, you know, might be more difficult to go out with, but they're usually not, they just, they're structured, they know what they can do. They put their money away first and they get to before pain, like, I can't go out this weekend, but...
⁓ let's make it next weekend. You know they're just very good at knowing their boundaries ⁓ and that's also something that I've ever been really good at which is why I'm glad I've always had a handle on superannuation and tax and other things where I can minimise my impact on my cash flow because I didn't have it growing up. I didn't have a really good role model with money, which is fine. ⁓
I know I sort of and even now and I also think it's my personality I'm always like it'll be alright we'll be alright we'll be at will fit you know we'll look after that next year ⁓
The Priority Lane (33:18)
Well, maybe because you didn't
have that role model when you were younger is probably why you got into it now.
Juanita Wrenn (33:24)
I
think so yeah. And I we had great fun. think that's why I love traveling. Mum and Dad used to take us. We did a lot of fun things. So I had a really fun childhood. Just with not much thought of saving. Or know, not much thought of how we were affording it or spending it or what we were doing with it. So it was fun though. And so that's where I'm always torn. Fun, saving. Fun, saving. It's definitely behavioral. You definitely have to find that balance.
The Priority Lane (33:46)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, well, I remember when I was younger when I was sort of saying, I'll put it away later. I just tell myself, well, got to grow up with no regrets. And... Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (33:57)
Yeah.
Yes, I still do that. Yes. And it's true. It's true.
And that's why I
wouldn't want anybody to... You don't want to... There's always a fine line between, you know, having... buying the new car or having the trip or taking your kids to Sea World for four days instead of just going down there for a day. There's always a fine line between things that you want or that new dress that's going to make you feel really good even or a pair of shoes that's going to make you feel really good. The thing is just putting boundaries in. How many pairs of shoes or how many trips you need to take.
The Priority Lane (34:34)
You can justify anything, well,
couldn't you? Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (34:36)
Yeah, you can't, can't.
It's like a, it's like a diet. No one likes to on a diet. No one likes to on a budget. So I think it's always best to work out what you can take out of your pay or your income straight away. Knowing that as that money resource builds, that money is going to make you money, you know, and you're going to be able to step away from work eventually. So it's understanding that the fine line between the instant pair of shoes now or the instant trip now, versus putting money over here and buying part of that company that's actually going
start making you money where in 5, 10, 15 years you're going to be able to have those shoes but also not work if you don't want to. You because you've made your money work. So I think it's getting people to not see their paycheck as just a way to pay bills. It's actually a resource that can be really powerful if you use it properly. That's hard, you've got to keep reminding yourself that every time you get your money you're like this money is mine, I've made this money and I can make this money make me more money.
The Priority Lane (35:26)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (35:36)
Or I can go and spend it on a pair of shoes which I'll probably throw away in six months or a holiday which would be great fun but we could have fun just going to Southbank and walk along the river and drive to a beach and have a picnic nearby. It's all choices, it's all people again, it's back to people.
The Priority Lane (35:56)
Yeah, yeah and also what makes it harder now or easier to spend is a lot of times you're not parting with actual physical cash. You don't have that experience of handing, it's just a tap and go type thing and you don't feel the pain of handing over the cash.
Juanita Wrenn (36:06)
yeah, no. Yeah. Yeah. No.
You know, only just recently and I've stolen it from someone and I can't think who or I would give them credit. I've done the three jars for my two younger kids, my 14 and 12 year old. We've only just started it and they get $10 a week, which doesn't sound like a lot, but they have to put $5 into the investment jar because they live at home and then $4 into the spending jar and then a dollar into the giving jar.
⁓ And at the end of the month, I double what's in the investment jar for them so they get to see that their investments grow. They get to spend, yeah, they get to spend in the jar whatever they want. And then with the giving jar, they've got to actually go and put it in someone who's busking or, you know, just they've got to give that money away to someone in the community somewhere. Just might just be a busker at the moment or just to get used to, you know.
The Priority Lane (36:48)
wow.
Year in.
Juanita Wrenn (37:07)
Because I think wealthy, think for some people saying that they want to be wealthy seems like a bad thing to do. know, it's like wealthy, you know, it seems like it's selfish or you're self-centered if you say you want to be wealthy. But being wealthy can also do a lot of good, you know, in the community as well. So if my kids become wealthy, I want them to also do good with that. And I don't want them to be ashamed to say it that I want to be wealthy because wealthy gives you the ability to look after family, you know, the ability to be able to actually step up and help people.
who haven't been able or who haven't been fortunate enough to be able to do what you've been able to do. So I think it's also getting people to not be scared of saying that they want to make money because that can be seen as a bad thing in society. You when you say I want to make money, I want to be rich. That can be seen as you know...
The Priority Lane (37:55)
being selfish
or whatever.
Juanita Wrenn (37:57)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And it's, it's not, it's not. But I do, I definitely do like the idea of the kids learning that there's three buckets, there's your spending investments. And then eventually, as they get bit older, when my 12 year old teacher about tax, you know, the tax in there as well.
The Priority Lane (38:15)
for you to come along
and take some of the money off of.
Juanita Wrenn (38:17)
Yeah, exactly. Yes, I will. Because like you said, it's a
physical bit. So I had to go to the bank and it was so strange. I went to the bank over the holidays and I was like, I need like $100 worth of $2 coins, know, and $100 worth of $1 coins because I want to actually, she just went, I don't think I've had this request for, you know, 12 months. And I was like, anyway, I'll let you know, it's a social experiment.
The Priority Lane (38:28)
You
I think I'll get some cords around here somewhere.
Juanita Wrenn (38:38)
Well yeah, my kids aren't interested
at this point because $5 at the moment for them, I mean that doesn't even buy them a chocolate breaker at their tuck shop these days. So they're not that interested at this point but as they see that money growing over here, I'm hoping that it's going to get them more excited. So at the moment it's really a me project but I'll let you know if they ever actually spend time looking at it. Check back with me in six months.
The Priority Lane (39:00)
Okay, well
dude, that sounds like a great idea. I hadn't heard of that before. yeah. Now back to Hudson's. You've been there since 2020 and got here during that time.
Juanita Wrenn (39:04)
Yeah, we'll say. Yeah, we'll say.
The Priority Lane (39:16)
business has expanded, you've added accounting, specialist self-managed super fund division, aged care accredited planning division, QROPS expertise for returning expats, wholesale and direct share portfolios for sophisticated investors, managed accounts, digital SOAs, DIY planning tools, and Nancy, the AI bot. So, lot of stuff. You sound busy. How did you like prioritise all this?
Juanita Wrenn (39:23)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Nice.
I say I'm busy. I say I'm busy.
The Priority Lane (39:46)
these projects go first or we can do them all at once or what was the decision making between which ones to go for now and which ones to delay?
Juanita Wrenn (39:49)
Yeah.
Again, really good people with me really to be fair. think the first two three years I was very reactive. So I was reacting to problems that we had.
The Priority Lane (40:01)
Thank you.
Juanita Wrenn (40:03)
And the last two or three years I've been able to be proactive, which has been far more rewarding than being reactive. But being reactive to problems that we were having, and the biggest, one of the biggest problems we were having was not having an accounting division. Because so much of financial planning is about trying to increase your cash flow. And one of the best ways to increase your cash flow is minimalizing your tax. And we really needed, we tried for about two years to find a really good accountant to work in with us.
In the end I just thought I need to do it myself. think, who is the guy from, the flight centre, the guy from flight centre. I remember seeing him to a one day and he said something like,
The Priority Lane (40:39)
Okay.
Juanita Wrenn (40:42)
When I don't have it in house, I'm just just going to bring it in house. When I don't have something, I'm just going to bring it in myself and that way I get to have it exactly how I want it to be. So accounting, we tried to outsource it, it wasn't working. I wanted it to all be under one roof collaborating so that the tax minimization was part of their entire plan because I don't know how it can be separated. So that's how accounting started. And then from there, I've got a self-managed super fund. So everything just sort
of it just I think one thing leads to another but I didn't want to be reactive anymore and so when I came back in 2020 the company needed it had it it had its problems needed to be fixed and so we had to make a lot of hard decisions had to do make a lot of changes and I think reacting is never good for a business cash flow suffered there was lots of problems so once I stopped reacting and took stock of the company
to see where I really wanted it to land, I wanted it to go, where I felt like a really good, comprehensive advice firm that I could put my name to should go. That's when I started adding things like Aged Care, Softman, Superfund, Div 296 Modelling, and I want people to be able to just have strategy done. They don't need to do product to have an advisor. It's a way that you can make money of clients is having their product with us, but they also don't have to have product. I want to be able to have a client who
sits with us, who it's a win-win. Yes, they'll have to pay for our service, but they'll win from that and they don't have to keep paying. They get the service, we'll save them money tenfold over from having the strategy done for them. But then unless you're in retirement, hand on my heart, unless you're in retirement or sort of 50 or above, you don't really need an advisor every year, unless you really need help staying in your product investments. If you saw an advisor every three or four or five years between the ages of 25 and 50,
maybe every four or five years. That's really all you need to do. Get your next strategy in place, build up equity, touch base with the planner again. And that's what I sort of wanted Hudson to be a little bit different. You soon over the age of 50s, you're transitioning to retirement and you're selling down assets and legislation changes. And there's lots of bring forward rules and concessional rules with super and things that we can tweak. Even down to things like your testamentary trust, if you want to, you know, encompass your family. But prior to the age of 50, I wanted a service.
where you could come in, get everything laid out for you, a document that you've got which shows you what you should do, what your options are, how you can minimise your tax. You can go away and do it yourself because most people are smart enough to do that. The time when you probably need us the most is if you're a huge spandaholic or you're not very good at staying on track then you might pay a fee to have us on you all the time. That'd be like a quarterly what have you done, you haven't done this, which is awful but we will do it for people.
which I hate doing because I feel like I'm their mum, you know, but I'm good at that. ⁓ But some people need that and helps them. It's like, I guess it's a bit like meeting your personal trainer at the gym. If you know you've got to meet them, you're more likely to get up and go to the gym. If you don't have to meet anyone there. Yeah, so.
The Priority Lane (43:42)
You
That's it. mean
they're only going to get in trouble if they're not doing what they're meant to be doing
Juanita Wrenn (43:58)
Yeah and so for the people who can't...
Yeah, if you're not disciplined enough, you need an advisor. But if you've got discipline or you're focused on your goal, I don't think under the age of 50, I think just getting strategy or getting some plans put in place and having a good talk about your mindset and what you want is generally enough. And then you hit 50 and things start to change and you want to start looking at, maybe can I work part time? Can I work, can I do five more years and then can I retire at 55? Or do I need to do 10 or do I need to do 15?
really good to start getting projections done. So I started thinking the sort of firm that I wanted rather than the sort of firm that I'd inherited basically. Because I bought into Hudson in 2004, had kids, was not the managing director, wasn't involved in any of the decisions at the top end. ⁓ Business partner died and I got to the option of I got the rest of Hudson so I fully own Hudson and ⁓ I got to do some of the things
that I'd wanted to do sort of 10 years ago. it's been great and I've got really, really a good team around me. And we're all really, I know everyone says that and I know that it's cliche to say your team's gotta be smarter than you. Not smarter, we all just, we all fit, we're all like the yin to the yang for each other at work. so we sort of, I don't know, we bring each other.
things that we all don't have. And that makes us a really good team. And I think it also brings ideas to me. They give me ideas. They mention something that they don't have and I'm like, right, let's bring it in. We can do that. And I can pivot quickly because it's just me. I've got no board. ⁓ I own the whole company. I'll never have a board. I don't take on equity owners. I won't do private equity. I don't do any of that because I can pivot tomorrow. If one of the advisors wants to do something and I agree with it, I can
I can put on product I want on my APL. And I think that's the beauty of where I'm at, is that I can pivot, I can move, I don't need approvals. And I've been doing it a long time. I trust myself, back myself 110%, which is half the battle, I think, with business. And I'm happy to take a risk. My husband, not so much. He'd prefer a nine to five job, no business risk.
The Priority Lane (46:18)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (46:27)
So I, you know, but I'm the complete opposite. So he's good for me. He also keeps me balanced at work. He's the CFO at work. So he's also sometimes, stop spending. He'll say, stop spending. Stop getting stuff on. Yeah, stop, stop.
The Priority Lane (46:37)
What's on the one for the future?
So what about Nancy? Because we've spoken a lot about the human element and everything. So what role does Nancy play?
Juanita Wrenn (46:47)
Oh I love Nancy.
Nancy's great. So Nancy is, she's purely AI, but she's got guard rails in.
so that everything that's been uploaded into Nancy is Hudson technical information. we've got the CIS Act uploader, we've got the CORPS Act, we've got all of the latest legislation, everything that's in Nancy is updated and it's been built with guardrails so that if you're in Nancy and you're asking a question about your superannuation, it will only look at information that I've uploaded into it. It uses the chat platform for you to be able to talk to it and ask it questions,
it only takes information from what we've uploaded from our Hudson database, which means that you're not ever going to get an incorrect technical answer. But the problem with any AI is that it's really only as good as the user. So if you ask it a question that's wrong, it's still going to be wrong. Or if you ask it in a way where it's a bit gray, it still may interpret your question wrong. And that's the only disadvantage of AI. But Nancy's as good as it can get. And you can ask Nancy anything. You can ask it about
goals you can ask Nancy about property and stamp duty and the first homeowner's grant and you can have a talk to Nancy and if Nancy doesn't quite know something which is really rare it'll send a question to an advisor you know to get the advisor to answer it for you.
But the disadvantage again always with any AI is purely that it's only as good as the user and that's with AI with anything. So we do a technical check. So if you use AI and put a plan together, which you can do easily and 90 % of those plans are really good. I can't fault AI in how it does its plans up, but it's in that it doesn't understand the nuances with tax especially.
and doesn't quite understand the nuances with tax. And occasionally it like, it was telling me yesterday that the superannuation guarantee rate was 11.5. So it will occasionally have an outdated rate. But if you did a plan with AI.
and you came to Hudson, we would do a technical check on it for $550, which is really cheap in the industry, but it would just be a technical check. We would see if there was a strategy gap, and we would say to you, you probably have a strategy gap. It will cost you X amount of dollars for us to do a strategy for you. But technically, that's right. Technically, your AI plan is right. Because AI is, and I love AI for work, AI has created massive efficiencies.
I love our AI avatar because it does answer a lot of questions. ⁓ I also love AI because it makes... ⁓
planning, stockbroking, derivatives, it makes everything accessible for everybody. all information is created equal. know, like it means that someone who hasn't gone to uni or who hasn't had the fortunate upbringing of say learning about money, they can ask Nancy anything they want, even AI. And it will answer so many questions. So that when you do go and see somebody, you're already fairly well educated on what the share market does. Be surprised how many people don't know what the ASX200
actually is. They hear it all the time, they see it on the news, they don't actually know what the ASX is or even that the ASX is actually a business and that they make money from you trading and that of course they want to keep showing you the stock prices because they create FOMO so that you go and trade and they make money. people don't think of the ASX like that. AI is amazing for that because it does start to get you to think and learn a lot about money before you even
The Priority Lane (50:31)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (50:43)
spend money seeing someone like us. So by the time you get to us, you know what the ASX 200 is, you know that they're there to make money, you understand what a managed fund is, you know what a bond is, because you've already had a good chat to Nancy, all AI, and you found out all about the different financial problems.
The Priority Lane (51:00)
cases, but
use it as a so when they sit down with you, they're further advanced and you can talk about more complex and more okay, okay.
Juanita Wrenn (51:07)
Yeah, exactly. absolutely.
Because I would never trust an AI plan. just, I don't trust AI with legal either. I get great advice from AI about legal things that will come up. But I always like to just get it double checked off by a lawyer. But at least before I go to the lawyer, I know a lot about it I can ask the right questions. And that's how I would use AI with a financial advisor.
The Priority Lane (51:33)
Well, since you're a fan of AI, what I've done is I've used that to come up with a question. I've asked it to come up with a question specifically for you regarding AI, okay, and the financial industry. Okay, so here we go, you ready? Okay, Juanita.
Juanita Wrenn (51:48)
Okay, I better be nice to me here.
Yep.
The Priority Lane (51:57)
You've led Hudson Financial Partners through a period of growth, generational transition, and increasing complexity in client expectations. There is a question coming. ⁓ When you look at the next decade where AI, automation, and client-facing technology are accelerating, what part of financial advice do you believe must remain deeply human for a firm to stay trusted and competitive?
Juanita Wrenn (52:23)
I think
All initial advice that you take should be from a human. I think the human element, understanding the nuances with different people, like I said to you earlier, all financial planning technically is the same. It doesn't matter. All the technical sides of financial planning are the same. All the rules are the same for everybody. It's how you put those rules around the person. And that's something that I think AI will ever be able to fully grasp. I mean, maybe if it keeps going like this, I mean, maybe it will, you'll have your own personal
The Priority Lane (52:43)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (52:54)
I
that will know you, Nigel, really well. You'll wake up and be like, Nigel, your eggs are ready the way you're not ready. Don't forget you've got to have your two tablets and your cup of tea. And maybe it will say, Nigel, you don't seem happy today. Is it the fact that your fish died last night? So you might get to a point where you've got your own personal AI that knows you so well that it can actually start to give you advice on your money. I'm sure it'll come to that at some stage. But I still think that having
The Priority Lane (53:05)
Yep.
You
Juanita Wrenn (53:25)
at least in the next decade.
Who knows actually how quickly this will go. at least, okay, let's say five years, decade. I don't know what's gonna happen in the next decade. AI is increasing at a huge, like just the things that AI can do now is just incredible. But I think the human element of financial advice is not just knowing the nuances. It's also having someone to talk to. And when you're talking about money that you've earned, that you've spent years studying for or working for, you don't just wanna trust a.
I mean as trustworthy or as much knowledge as they have. I don't want to talk at a turnabout AI here. I'm scared it might come in. It's been so good for me. scared it's going to... you know, what's that machine's... the machines come alive. But I think the human element is one of care, one of understanding, one of knowing what's important to you without you having to say it. Just talking to you or just seeing where your eyes go or how you sit. I can work out what sort of person you are, what might be important to you. I don't think AI is
The Priority Lane (54:06)
you
Juanita Wrenn (54:25)
ever going to be able to do that work out without you explicitly telling AI what you like. Sometimes that's hard, sometimes you don't know what you like, sometimes maybe me sitting with you and me talking to you is going to help you find out what you like or what you want and I don't know that AI is ever going to get to that human element.
The Priority Lane (54:32)
Yeah, yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (54:45)
But once you've had that initial piece with me though, Nigel, and I've given you some great ideas or you've got some strategy, then I think AI can still enhance that even further by enhancing your knowledge, helping you stay on track. And to be fair, we've got clients who actually put our strategies through AI and they come back and they say, AI liked your strategy. I'm always like, that's good. But you know, like, so AI would test people as well. would test firms.
The Priority Lane (54:45)
And I think also.
You
Juanita Wrenn (55:15)
test strategy. ⁓ I think AI will ultimately make the best of the best survive. You know I don't know if that's, I think there's good and bad in that as well but it will certainly test firms because everything's in the open. You can upload anything I send you, upload it to chat or Claude ⁓ and it will tell you how good or bad it is and if I've missed anything or same as legal documents I get I put them through Claude. How good's this? What are we missing? What should be in here? ⁓ So I think AI
I think it's got a lot of good, put it that way. And I know there's bad, but I think I'm always a half glass full sort of person. So I don't tend to think or dwell on the bad when it happens and I'll go, yeah, okay, I should have seen that coming. But I tend not to, I tend just to see the positives out of it.
The Priority Lane (55:58)
You
And also people like dealing with people as well. For someone to sit down and say, yeah, so to say, because what happens if the advice is wrong, you can't really talk to an AI bot and say, hang on, why did you do this? What's going on? Where with a person, you can hold them accountable for the advice they've given you.
Juanita Wrenn (56:09)
yeah, that's true Nigel.
No.
Yeah, 100%.
But hopefully I've given you good advice and hopefully they've become almost part of your outer circle. They're part of your, an advisor should be part of your outer circle. Cause I should, if you are my client, I should know.
intimate things about you like how much money you've actually got in your super you know what you actually want to do with your life where you want to leave your money you might not want to leave it to your wife you might have a mistress down the road but i should know that you know i mean like these are the things
The Priority Lane (56:49)
Everybody out.
Juanita Wrenn (56:53)
These are things that I should know so your advisor becomes quite an integral part of your life in a way. And I think having a human that you like, that you get on well with is far more psychologically rewarding than having a computer.
The Priority Lane (57:05)
So.
Juanita Wrenn (57:09)
But there's definitely a place for AI, trust me. And I think there'll be AI avatars everywhere eventually that can do a lot of what I would do for you. But what they can't do is what you and I would do if you were my client.
The Priority Lane (57:10)
Thanks so much.
Yeah, okay. Now just a couple of quick questions before we finish off. What have I got here? Okay, these are my questions, not from AI. Where are we? Okay, so if you had to build a financial advice business from scratch today, what systems would you prioritize first? Accounting?
Juanita Wrenn (57:33)
No.
Accounting actually I do it.
Yeah, I'd go accounting
And I'd look for advisors who were, I'd I'd start, be different. I'd have accounting, I'd have advisors. I would have really, really smart paraplanners. They'd be my technicians, my paraplanners. And I'd have advisors who were really, huge people, people. Huge, not necessarily spreadsheet or math people, but people get, you know, just can read a room, can work with people, love people, get energy from people. That's what I'd look for in advisors.
I'd have them paired with a really, really technical paraplanner. And then they'd be, you know, they'd just be unstoppable. That's how I would, and it's not that I don't have that now, but I, that's how I would start fresh. know, is that if I was to start fresh now, and I would still keep everybody I had there, but.
That's what I would look for. And I would have my paraplanners, would have, I didn't put a lot of energy into my paraplanners at the beginning because I was thinking, well, that's the advisor. It's not, it's the paraplanner is the technician. The advisors are too, but the advisors have to be people, people. it's very rare. And correct me if I'm wrong, to find somebody who's amazing with people, who's also very good at detail and spreadsheeting and numbers. And it does happen, but it's rarer than finding someone who just loves people
They're quick process, they know how the system works, they know what to do for you. But when it comes to the detail, which is really important in financial planning, you need someone who's also got that detail. We had a mishap years ago. An advisor did $100 instead of 100 % in a rollover. This is 20 years ago. It was caught in the review process with the paraplanner. But these sort of little mistakes could have, you know, could...
The Priority Lane (59:35)
Yeah.
Juanita Wrenn (59:36)
Yeah,
and this is the trouble with not being detailed versus being big picture. But I've learned that. That's one of my biggest lessons, I think, over the last six years is that you need the detail and the big picture to be a really good advisor.
The Priority Lane (59:51)
Well, you've sort of covered off my final question,
Juanita Wrenn (59:54)
⁓ Now, on a scale of one to
10, do I talk more than any of your other podcasts? Sorry.
The Priority Lane (1:00:02)
Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, no, you, you, which is great, which is great. Yeah, it's it's a much better than having someone not saying anything.
Juanita Wrenn (1:00:07)
I'm up there on my own. I I talk a lot.
I'm a lot Nigel, I know that.
The Priority Lane (1:00:18)
Well my final question was going on from what systems you'd put in the business was breaking it down to an individual level what attributes make a great financial advisor which you've covered that off. There you go.
Juanita Wrenn (1:00:29)
Yeah, there you go. Exactly. Yeah, you need you need to you
need the big picture. You can't just look at the technical you need the big picture. And that's that's hard to get with a technician because technicians are smart. Like they're smart people that come and do this because it is it's a lot of math. It's a lot of strategy. It's a lot of software, lot of projections.
And so to have an advisor who's got the big picture as well as that technical side, that's gold. They're the ones that you never let go of. But you can do it by pairing a great paraplanner with a people person. yeah, that's my little gold nugget for the day, Nigel. ⁓
The Priority Lane (1:01:07)
fantastic and look
As I said, when I saw your profile, thought, wow, Juanita would be an interesting guest. We can do a whole series.
Juanita Wrenn (1:01:16)
Have I disappointed or have I kept you entertained?
The Priority Lane (1:01:23)
It's been great, it's been great and look some of the knowledge you've passed on was exactly what we were looking for. So thank you very much for that. So we need to thank you very much. You have a good day and everyone else, thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next week on the priority lane.
Juanita Wrenn (1:01:32)
You too.
Thanks Nigel.