This week’s Royal Commission hearings have brought life insurance into the spotlight, just as ASIC has completed its review of insurance in super – given that 70% of all policies are held through super funds, how will this affect your clients?
An accident or illness can have devastating consequences for clients, and that’s before financial considerations are even taken into account. In this AIA Australia claimant story, we see the profound impact having family insurance has made for the Conroy family and the role their financial adviser played in making this happen.
The most effective and impactful stories are those which connect with the audience and make them feel something. As Vanessa Stoykov writes, the story of Caitlin Conroy and how AIA Australia was able to help her and her family when the unthinkable happened is one of these stories.
Financial planning is about much more than managing money. As Vanessa Stoykov discusses, planning for your clients’ futures involves looking after all their assets, including their own lives.
The kids have all finished school, the mortgage paid off, there’s plenty of money in the super fund and your client is either approaching retirement or already retired. Over many years we have provided them financial guidance and they pay us well. As financial planners these are the clients we love!
There is another group of potential clients who are in desperate need of good advice now and have the opportunity to become your high income accumulator and wealthy retiree of the future. These are the young family.
As an adviser, it’s not unusual to find yourself dealing with clients who are under high levels of stress – particularly at claim time. Along with financial advice, you can also find yourself being asked to play the roles of friend, confidante and emotional support system.
The web, regulation and our increasingly self-directed consumer market have forced the advice industry to evolve or die. As a result, the quintessential “risky” or risk adviser is being replaced by a new, savvier species – the Risk Professional. And they know that a risk discussion that goes deeper than just insurance is key to their survival.
Consumers know that they should be protecting their ability to earn an income and agree that it is their responsibility to care for their family’s financial wellbeing, and yet roughly half of Australians are still putting off the need to act.
Australian families are changing shape with the number of blended and step-families on the rise, bringing with it new financial challenges for today’s modern family.
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