Launching a podcast to help women understand more about their finances might have been the x-factor which helped Bianca Musico CFP® win the 2024 FAAA CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Professional of the Year Award.
The Cracking Mum Maths podcast is a community service that has her in conversation with producer Natalie Lynch helping women prioritise their finances to ensure financial security. It focuses on presenting bite-sized information on investments, credit cards, budgeting and more.
This was the second time Bianca had entered the FAAA awards; she had been selected in the top three but pipped to the title in 2023 by Martin McGrath. After being encouraged by peers to enter again in 2024, she did, and this time felt she had more confidence to be herself.
“The process is a good one. I was rigid [in my answers] in the first year, I was in my own head. But the second year I realised it wasn’t that scary – they just wanted to know who I was,” Bianca said
Bianca recommends anyone thinking about entering the FAAA awards to “take the leap”.
“The interview process is an amazing process, and makes you reflect on the work you’ve done. You meet amazing people along the way and that’s what’s going to drive our profession – we need the collaboration and surrounding ourselves with top advisers.”
Bianca said the process was not like any other awards, it’s not about how much FUM or how many clients you have. It was a deep dive into the advice process, how do you grow as an adviser, how do you help other advisers in the business, and the profession.
“I had done a lot of work this year, as head of advice at the firm, I mentor young advisers and we had one associate adviser doing his Professional Year,” she said.
“It’s important to work to develop staff and we like to promote internally.”
The FAAA Awards cover the areas of client service, community contribution, professionalism, operational excellence, technology and cyber security, governance, culture and more. A shortlist is made after reviewing the written submissions. Finalists are then interviewed in person, with the winner in each category announced during the Gala Dinner at the annual FAAA Congress.
Why advice?
Like many other advisers, it was personal experiences that brought Bianca into the planning world.
Firstly, she watched her parents manage their lives and wondered how they managed to make their financial decisions. Her Dad said it “just worked out”. Her parents bought property which she was interested in, and she was always numbers-minded.
While studying, Bianca started working part-time for a female adviser. In the same office were a couple of guys who had started their own business focusing on insurance. Bianca said the guys were very smart and they had another smart friend who kept talking to them about investments. They eventually handed over a lot of their money over to this guy and convinced their parents to part with their own funds. The guy eventually ended up in jail for running a Ponzi scheme.
“It made me realise it was all about relationships,” Bianca said. The guys had focused on the relationship and not the investment. Bianca said while she felt bad for those who had lost money it also made her realise that stopping other people making these mistakes was something she felt she wanted to do.
“I wanted to be a financial planner to stop others who didn’t have the time to do these things themselves to have someone to trust.”
Today, Bianca’s greatest pleasure as an adviser is to see clients tick off their goals.
“Moving their ‘goals’ to ‘achievements’ is one of the greatest joys,” she said.
Her clients at WARR HUNT are typically legal, accounting and medical professionals who don’t have time to manage their own finances. For these clients, Bianca and her team will manage cashflow, debt, investments, estate planning, accounting, super and insurance. The firm is fee for service – and fees are agreed annually.
Bianca has been with WARR HUNT for 13 years now and took some time off to have her two sons. She returned to work three days a week before gradually moving into full-time work again.
Earlier this year Bianca became a principal and owner in the firm.
Cracking Mum Maths and more
Bianca’s other passion in advice is educating people who are not financially literate, and this is where the Cracking Mum Maths podcast comes in. “I was getting a lot of questions from mums typically aged 30-45 – basic questions about finance such as not understanding negative gearing or investments,” she said.
The podcast is designed to help people equip themselves with knowledge to not make them feel silly in financial discussions. The podcasts are just 15 minutes long and drop fortnightly.
