The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has partnered with PortfolioConstruction Forum to offer practitioner-focused investment content at the 2014 AFA National Adviser Conference to be held in Cairns, 12-14 October.
AFA Chief Commercial Officer, Anne Fuchs, said the partnership with PortfolioConstruction Forum will ensure that advisers have a clearer understanding of their obligations to clients with respect to investment recommendations. “The front-of-mind question for most advisers now is, what are my obligations as an adviser in this new world of best interests duty, where the practicalities remain largely unknown and untested? Advice being developed now around longevity risk is opening the door to innovative investment strategies that are very different to the old solutions and so we recognise a clear need to help our members protect the retirement savings of their clients.”
Ms Fuchs said many advisers are feeling uneasy about traditional strategic asset allocation and the AFA wants to encourage its members to think differently about model portfolios and their role in recommending them. “The best part about the investment content at the Adviser Conference this year is the realization of the need to live by the AFA theme for 2014, Innovate: Think. Create. Act. Advisers need to be thinking differently about how they invest their clients’ hard-earned savings so that clients have the really dignified retirement they aspire to have.”
ASIC Deputy Commissioner Peter Kell will also present at the AFA National Conference on a range of topics including putting forward ASIC’s view of the adviser role in the investment process. “Mr Kell will look at areas such as dynamic asset allocation and how advisers manage risk during an economic downturn,” Ms Fuchs said.
Technical experts from Perpetual and Australian Unity, who are the Australian market leaders in developing thinking about investment philosophy and advice strategy implications, will provide investment curriculum content. This will be moderated by Graham Rich from PortfolioConstruction Forum.
More than 80% of AFA Members include investment advice in their service solutions.
“When our delegates walk away from the 2014 AFA National Adviser Conference, they will have a much clearer idea about their Best Interests obligation, what it means to them, what it means under the law, what their investment philosophy could be and how they can best protect their clients’ money,” Ms Fuchs said. “This is market leading content and we are very pleased to make it available to our conference delegates.”
