At a recent No More Practice conference in Sydney, Senator Mathias Cormann, Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, told the audience to “be proud, you have a world class financial services industry”.
While Australia’s performance during the GFC has been stellar compared to our Western compatriots, the financial advice industry, however, has not been without challenges.
The attack by Australian industry funds on retail advisers charging commissions, along with well-publicised collapses such as Storm and Trio, have created a lack of trust and confidence in the Australian financial advice sector.
While the industry is preparing for new regulation, improved education standards and tougher recruitment policies, there is a general feeling of negativity and defensiveness from advisers themselves.
We believe the industry has a job to do in five key areas to build faith in and demand for our services. The success of these five key areas will create more demand from consumers, draw more talent into the industry, help advice businesses achieve a greater level of prosperity and see an overall prosperous financial services community across the board.
Over the coming weeks I will outline these five challenges facing the financial advice industry, discuss potential solutions and look at how the industry can lift its game.
The first key challenge for the advice industry is the provision of education to the industry itself. With the burden of increased regulation via in FOFA and a move by industry bodies like the FPA to standardise certification, advisers and accountants are looking for ways to increase their practice value by growing their client base and revenue streams, while meeting additional compliance requirements.
We have created No More Practice as an educational franchise where the industry can share peer-to-peer learning experiences, in mediums that are easily accessible and even enjoyable. By being able to access content via a reality TV format on network television, combined with email newsletter and blogs from leading experts and live events for networking and learning, industry education and learning is being redefined and repackaged to fit in with the time-poor and experience-hungry lives of advisers.
You will note the work we are undertaking is not in isolation. We have partnered with some of the best industry associations and corporate organisations in the country to meet the 10-year challenge for the advice industry in Australia
By changing the way we educate and communicate, and by collaborating across the broad spectrum of the industry, we can all truly prosper and serve Australia and take our services to across the globe.
