Advisers who remain the go-to person for every decision in their business may need to ask themselves whether they have built a successful practice – or simply one that has become too dependent on them.
That was one of the messages from Australian financial adviser Amanda Cassar, who told delegates at the 2026 MDRT Global Conference in Sydney recently that learning to let go had been an important part of creating greater capacity in both her business and her life.
Cassar said advisers often begin as highly capable “doers”, building their practices through hard work and becoming accustomed to solving problems quickly.
But as the business grows, the adviser can continue carrying those responsibilities even after becoming a manager and, ultimately, a leader.
“I had started as ‘doer Amanda’ and moved to ‘manager Amanda’, never letting ‘doer Amanda’ know that she could resign,” she said.
“And when I became ‘leader Amanda’, I didn’t let ‘manager Amanda’ go either.”
Becoming the Bottleneck
For Cassar, the result was recognising that she had become the bottleneck in her own business.
Every time a team member brought her a problem and she immediately supplied the answer, she was reinforcing the idea that the answer should always come from her.
Similarly, taking work back because she could complete it more quickly – or continuing to closely monitor work she had supposedly delegated – meant she had not really relinquished responsibility.
“I thought that being needed meant I was valuable. Irreplaceable even,” she said.
…coaching taught me that if everybody needed me for everything, I hadn’t built freedom into my business…
“But coaching taught me that if everybody needed me for everything, I hadn’t built freedom into my business.”
The shift required Cassar to stop automatically solving problems and instead help team members develop the confidence and capability to make decisions themselves.
Questions such as “What do you think the next step is?” and “If I wasn’t here, what would you do?” became part of that process.
…advisers also need to recognise that different does not necessarily mean wrong…
Cassar said advisers also need to recognise that different does not necessarily mean wrong.
While compliance, standards and client outcomes cannot be compromised, there are many tasks where a team member can achieve the required outcome without following precisely the same process the adviser would have used.
“The goal of leadership is not to make yourself indispensable. It’s to become unnecessary for the things that don’t require you.”
Right People, Right Roles
Cassar also pointed to the importance of having the right people in clearly defined roles.
Sometimes what appears to be a people problem is instead a lack of clarity around who owns a role, who has decision-making responsibility and what success in that position looks like.
Communication is equally important.
In Cassar’s business, the onshore and offshore teams meet for 15 minutes twice a week to discuss wins, outstanding work, roadblocks and ownership of tasks.
Rather than adding another layer of meetings, she said the regular rhythm helps prevent multiple interruptions later in the week.
The broader objective is not simply greater efficiency, but creating capacity – for team members to step up and for the adviser to spend more time thinking and leading.
Stop, Delegate and Protect
Cassar encouraged advisers to consider three questions when deciding how they want their business to support their life:
- What am I going to stop?
- What am I going to delegate?
- What am I going to protect?
Stopping could mean declining meetings that no longer add value, checking fewer emails outside work or no longer automatically saying ‘yes’ to every opportunity.
Delegation, she said, should extend beyond tasks an adviser dislikes. It can also include work the adviser performs well but which no longer requires their personal involvement.
And genuine delegation means transferring ownership rather than handing over a task and continuing to hover over it.
The third question – what to protect – may have nothing to do with work. For Cassar, Fridays are reserved for her grandchildren and she does not check work emails again until Monday morning.
“If everything in your calendar is negotiable, eventually everything gets negotiated away,” she said.
…the additional capacity advisers create in their businesses needs to be used deliberately rather than simply filled with more work…
Cassar told delegates the additional capacity advisers create in their businesses needs to be used deliberately rather than simply filled with more work.
For years, she said, she had viewed freedom as something that would arrive after the business became bigger, the team stronger or things finally settled down.
But there will always be another goal, another client or another opportunity.
“I do not protect this time because I’m successful. I’m successful because I protect this time.”
Her challenge to delegates was therefore not to return home intending to make a long list of changes, but to identify just three: one thing to stop, one thing to delegate and one thing to protect.
“Not next month. Not next year,” she said. “This coming week.”
