Financial Planners across the country will have an opportunity to rate their satisfaction with the support services provided by their licensee when leading research firm CoreData starts its annual licensee research program this week.
The research forms the basis of the 2016 Professional Planner/CoreData Licensee of the Year Award, which will be revealed in June.
To qualify for the award, a licensee must receive a minimum of 20 responses from its advisers. The research is conducted online, is anonymous and underpins what CoreData founder Andrew Inwood (pictured) says is “one of the critical pieces of research in the Australian financial services calendar”.
“It delivers a very clear picture of the health of all of the networks and is a powerful predictor of network growth and profitability,” Inwood says.
“We built it and continue to refine it as we know that advice networks will need to continue to drive growth and understand how they are evolving to meet changing client needs. This may be the most important data a business head can have.”
The survey allows advisers to give direct and honest feedback on their licensee’s proposition.
“Open forums are often uncomfortable places to air opinions and this means everyone gets an equal say and all of those who complete the survey get a snapshot of the results to allow them to see where they sit relative to the rest of the market,” Inwood says.
In 2015 the Licensee of the Year Award was shared by Fortnum Financial Advisers and GPS Wealth, while Commonwealth Financial Planning was the top-rated bank-owned licensee.
Critical role of licensees
He says licensees play a critical role in the delivery of advice to clients and the research aims to deliver deep insights into the evolving needs and demands of financial advisers in their quest for growth, in light of changing client needs, technological developments and regulatory changes.
“The business that outperforms will be the business that gets to these changes first.”
In addition to being a valuable forum for advisers to provide detailed and anonymous feedback on licensees, the research provides licensees with an in-depth understanding of how they can enhance their relationships with advisers to support advisers as they look in turn to enhance their relationships with clients.
Inwood says all of the data the firm has collected shows that the Licensee Of the Year title invariably goes the business that best helps its planners meet the needs of their clients.
“Don’t be mistaken that the rapidly digitising world and the changes this is bringing in information flows and expectations of service means that clients, across all age groups, are looking for a different relationship with their planner and this has fundamentally affected their buying process,” Inwood says.
Clients are increasingly searching for low-risk returns in a low-yield investment environment and aged care is a growing unmet need. Clients are getting savvier and there is a threat from low-cost alternatives, including robo-advice.
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More effective support for advisers
This creates a need for licensees to more effectively support advisers in articulating their value proposition to clients and provide an appropriate range of alternative products, including listed investment companies and exchange-traded funds, as opposed to traditional managed funds.
Regulatory changes create a need for licensees to offer adequate compliance support, technical services support and education and training.
The licensee research is made up of four components:
1. Licensee support services
Adviser satisfaction with the support services delivered by their licensee across 11 core categories:
- Marketing support and communications
- Compliance support
- Technical services
- Paraplanning
- Education and training
- Business planning
- Practice development/management
- Research
- Adviser technology
- Revenue payments
- Acquisitions and succession
2. Perceptions on the overall value proposition
The overall licensee value proposition encompasses overall support, brand strength, product range and remuneration. Advisers are asked to rate their own licensee, as well as other licensees that they are familiar with.
3. Overall satisfaction and net promoter score
Advisers are asked to rate their overall satisfaction with their licensee. Advisers are also asked how likely they are to recommend their licensee, which forms the basis of net promoter score (NPS) calculations.
4. Intention
The research explores adviser propensity to switch licensees and the potential triggers for change, as well as plans for growth, including by acquisition.
