As an adviser, you have the privilege of being part of people’s lives on an ongoing basis. It’s less transactional and more relationship driven. Many of you would see it as part of your job to take your clients on a journey, both financially – with a strong financial plan; and psychologically – with ongoing guidance and encouragement to help your clients stick to their plan and reach their goals.
When we talked about the concept of reinvention with one of our long-term Collective Partners, Bryce Doherty of UBS Asset Management, he made the compelling case for why it’s more important than ever for advisers to guide people using a long-term plan for their financial health. With less tax payers, more retirees, and inadequate savings at the current rate, the next 20-30 years could look very grim without more people being committed to self-funding their retirement.
With so much change to grapple with on an everyday basis, the ability to educate people and lead them on this journey will come down to two things:
- Raising awareness of the issue – nobody will change if they don’t really know what’s at stake
- Short-form ongoing education, before during and after the initial advice process. People are busy, and while they know they should be focusing on their finances, it usually comes in at the bottom of their list – especially the big stuff like sorting out superannuation and insurances, let alone ongoing investing.
With our Collective Partners and Faculty of financial advisers focusing on creating educational content for the industry and the broader public, we intend to keep this issue firmly in the public eye. It will be critical for Generation X and Y, with up to 80 per cent of them at risk of falling short if they don’t get it right.
While there may be a strong focus on millennials, and the changing circumstances they face, if we don’t put a spotlight on the issues Gen X and Y are facing, there will be added burden on millennials to pay for them as retirees as well.
As an industry, we have a moral obligation to do as much as we can to get people financially ready for the challenges ahead. We have the know-how, resources and facilities to provide a solution.
What we need to do is start this conversation across as many channels as we can, in as many different ways as we can, in the plainest speak we can.
If you want to contribute to the education we create, write to us here with your ideas.
We will continue to work with our excellent partners to produce content you can both learn from and share.
Until next time,
The opinions expressed in this content are those of the author shown, and do not necessarily represent those of No More Practice Education Pty Ltd or its related entities. All content is intended for a professional financial adviser audience only and does not constitute financial advice. To view our full terms and conditions, click here.
