The financial planning industry sells much the same product multiple times. I was a financial planner in a company affiliated with an insurance company and witnessed this first hand. All our clients wanted the same thing, better results than they thought they could achieve by themselves. They varied only in their appetite for risk. So the financial planners group had one plan personalised only to the extent that names were changed. My para planner had literacy problems and produced plans full of spelling errors, when I corrected his spelling he did not change his master plan so the next plan repeated his spelling errors.
The company MD saw no problem, he was living for today.
Each year the clients were called in for a review of progress for which they were charged 1% of funds under management. This review was produced by the house computer and a colour printer. It presented very well but had no planner input. Most clients went away happy with the glossy report thinking that their planner had their interests in hand. A rising tide lifts all the boats so in good times this system worked a treat. A bit later on the MD got into a bit of trouble and had to settle with his wife after she left with her black eyes and bruises. He was a lovely chap skilled at selling refigerators to eskimos and not much else. The police wanted to charge him for assaults on his wife and others but he managed to stay one step ahead. A man of integrity by industry standards.
