After about 30 years in the industry, Julie Matheson could be forgiven for wanting to put her feet up, but the Perth-based planner wants to do nothing of the sort.
“A lot of planners do step back in retirement and want to do something entirely different, but I love the profession and I still think there is so much to do,” she says.
In fact, she wants to take things up a notch – from Canberra.
Matheson has formed the Western Australia Party and hopes to field candidates and secure her own Senate spot in next year’s federal election.
She is no stranger to politics: she is a councillor for the City of Subiaco and has had two previous Senate tilts in WA state elections.
This time she has her sights set on the federal landscape, because she wants to push for reform of the compliance rules that she believes hold many planners back.
“I want to be a beacon in Parliament for the financial planning industry and help Parliament understand how we work,” Matheson says. “My first job would be to cut the red tape and rules. There are no KPIs to suggest that this excessive compliance results in a better outcome for customers.
“Compliance is expensive and that gets passed on to the customer. It’s very hard for people to obtain a Statement of Advice for less than $2000 or $3000 these days.”
Matheson, who also served on the Financial Planning Association’s board for 10 years, says young people without much money ask her what they should do and she tells them to see an adviser.
“They say they can’t afford it,” she says. “And the fact they can’t afford it means they need to see a planner more than anyone.”
Another of Matheson’s bugbears is the labelling of financial planners as ‘authorised representatives’.
“No one in the public knows what that is,” she says. “If I went to a barbecue and said I was an authorised representative, then people would think, ‘What on Earth is that?’ And what am I an authorised representative of? A licensee? Well, many members of the public don’t know what a licensee is either.”
This lack of clear labelling within the profession creates all kinds of confusion, Matheson argues.
“We should be classified according to what we do, such as an agent from CommBank or an insurance agent who specialises in life products,” she argues. “Otherwise, people get confused because they think they’re getting one kind of advice, but they’re not sure because they don’t know what the person actually does or who they work for.”
Matheson’s passion for planning has earned her recognition.
In 2016, she was awarded a Distinguished Service Award from the FPA for her contribution to the profession. That same year, she also received the WA Local Government Merit Award for distinguished service to the community.
These days, Matheson also advises Indigenous communities that receive royalty payments from iron-ore sales.
She would love to see the planning profession evolve with the same kind of representation that doctors receive from the Australian Medical Association – a body that, she argues, advocates on behalf of medical practitioners while also putting patients first.
“Doctors look after people’s health and we look after people’s financial health,” she says. That financial health is crucial, Matheson says, to a life well lived.
“I read a story recently about a women who didn’t have much money and she was under so much financial stress and that financial stress led to more bad decisions,” Matheson says. “When you’re poor, you tend to make poorer decisions. So, for me, making sure people have money is very important, as it allows you to make the best decision for your circumstances.”
Julie Matheson
Name of firm: Apt Strategy
Name of licensee: Apt Strategy
Time in the industry: 30 years
Academic qualifications: bachelor’s degree; diploma of financial planning
Accreditations: CFP
Professional association memberships: FPA Life Risk specialist; Australian Institute of Company Directors
Other memberships: Banking and Finance Oath
