Financial planning practice Eureka Whittaker Macnaught (EWM) has been named 2014 Practice of the Year by its Australian Financial Services (AFS) licencee, Financial Wisdom.
EWM emerged as the top practice among the Commonwealth Bank-owned licencee’s more than 150 practices across Australia.
The award is judged according to “criteria around the way you manage the people in the business, the client engagement, the operations and the financials. It’s really a professional assessment,” says Greg Cook, chief executive officer of EWM.
“It’s primarily based on the things you’re doing for your clients…but also a subjective assessment of how you’re assisting the group,” Cook adds. However, he stresses this isn’t linked to distribution of products but to “furthering the camaraderie, the sharing nature that exists amongst the 376 Financial Wisdom advisers,” Cook says.
He explains that the group wants to focus on building this “collegiate environment”.
EWM ranks among the larger FinWiz practices, which includes many small practices of two or three advisers. Cook identifies Perth-based Wealthwise and Chatswood’s Lifestyle Financial Planning as two others that are comparable in the number of advisers, revenue size and type of clientele.
“Being recognised by my peers is important to us. Like any business, there are always things that we’re working on and need to continually improve.
“There are some great businesses around financial planning, and to be personally made the Queensland practice of the year, we were quite chuffed with that, but to take out the national award was a real thrill.”
Along with taking out the national and state-level awards in 2014, EWM previously won at the national level in 2011 and 2013.
“We’ve got a fantastic people-culture in the business, and for the support staff who aren’t often directly involved with Financial Wisdom, it illustrates to them that it’s a practice that’s doing a great job for our clients.”
Light at the end of the tunnel
This surely provides a welcome diversion for EWM and its licensee, after the protracted attention of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Senate Inquiry surrounding the CBA financial planning scandal.
Improved education standards for the bank’s financial planners, as reported here, rank among the various measures the bank has so far rolled out in responding to this intense scrutiny. Membership of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) will also be required for CBA’s senior financial planners, as part of their requirement to hold a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation.
This is an area close to Cook’s heart, as a fellow of the FPA, part of its Conduct Review Commission and a CFP himself. EWM is an FPA Professional Practice, which means at least 50 per cent of its planners hold either the CFP designation or an equivalent, or are working towards it.
“Planners should be part of a profession, not just part of an industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re an employee of a bank or heading up your own boutique practice,” he says.
Placing the FPA at the centre of this push toward professionalism, Cook believes membership is hugely important. “Along with that go the higher education standards, the higher experience requirements, higher ethical standards, continuing education requirements and the higher conduct standards,” he says.
As a senior member of the association, Cook also holds strong views on how it should engage with the regulator.
“There should be greater communication between the FPA licensees and ASIC, where there are isolated examples of ‘bad apples’ in the industry or the profession.
“The public expects that the professional associations, the licencees and the regulator should not be operating in silos, and should be aware of any isolated misconduct that occurs.
“I don’t think those lines of communication have been as open as they should have been over the years and that does need to change as soon as possible,” he adds
