Striking the right balance between financial planner education standards and an industry accessible to promising new recruits is critical, according to one young self-employed financial planner.
Evan Hill runs his own practice, HSA Financial, which provides financial advice to clients in Sydney’s central business district and suburbs surrounding Concord, Strathfield, Bankstown and Liverpool.
He operates as an authorised representative of Garvan Wealth Management, an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensee owned by National Australia Bank.
Hill is ambivalent about the minimum standards of financial adviser education being rolled out in Australia’s bank-owned dealer groups – which is somewhat surprising given the 28 year old’s own advanced level of education.
He holds a business and commerce degree, an advanced diploma of financial planning (ADFP) and has almost completed his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation.
“I’m an adviser that’s already doing my CFP, I value the education. But at the same time, it does create a barrier for others that might be well suited to financial planning and might be put off,” Hill says.
However, he also acknowledges the need to ensure those who provide financial advice have the highest possible knowledge of their subject matter.
“You’ve got to find that balance between soft skills and technical knowledge. Sometimes you want to get the best communicator, not just the person who knows the most about financial planning.
“You need someone who can communicate the message to a client and make it relevant, make them motivated to hit their goals.”
It’s not about institutional versus non-aligned
At 28 years of age, and given his connection with one of the country’s ‘big four’, it’s unsurprising Hill believes institutions have a valid role to play in the financial advice space, especially in helping financial planners in their formative years.
“One of the things I’ve really noticed with the banks is that you get a lot of support on the wealth [management] side, such as model portfolios and a lot of investment research.
Comparing this with the service he received from some non-aligned AFS licensees, Hill says: “When you’re young and starting out, you want to have the backing of an institution as a safety net…[they]share their research with me and lend their support in that way. It’s all catered for and ready to go”.
“With independent financial advice groups, some of the smaller ones, it wasn’t structured in that way…sometimes when you’re new, you don’t want to have to build your own, you want someone to have it ready for you. That was offered with the aligned dealer groups,” Hill says.
However, he doesn’t believe the existence of both institutionally owned and non-aligned dealer groups sees any one model superior to another.
“But with independent [groups], if you’ve got your own established way of investing and you’ve got a wider approved product list – I can see that advantage too,” he adds.
