Exam changes welcomed, but cost should be cut: Associations

One response to “Exam changes welcomed, but cost should be cut: Associations”

1. 

   Jeremy Wright

   January 18, 2024

   The key element to solving a problem, is to first understand what the problem is.

   The next key element is to find the most effective way to fix the problem in a manner that does not cause mayhem on the road to salvation.

   What has occurred over the last 6 plus years, has been a Faulty Towers rendition of fixing the building with the well-meaning Irish Builder that thinks he understands the problem and half listens to Basil who has his own interpretation of what needs to be done and ignores sage advice and direction from his wife who actually works in the Business and knows it inside out, then he and the builder do the exact opposite of what needs to be done and chaos ensues.

   EVERYTHING in life has to have a strong foundation in order for it to first survive, then build upon.

   The Financial Planning Industry and ALL Australians need as their foundations, Wealth Protection as their first priority, upon which they can build their wealth.

   For the vast majority of people and Businesses, wealth disappears if the ability to work and earn money is halted by illness, disability or death, which is where the Insurance comes in, to place a supporting foundation to protect what has been built.

   Without lump sum cash and income injections, what has been built, is nothing more than a house of cards waiting for a wind to blow it all down.

   Every Financial Planner knows this and Australians DO NOT know this, or they put it into the TOO HARD basket, which only sees the light again when the Financial Adviser refers the client to a risk specialist to build a strong levy bank and protect the client.

   Thousands of holistic Planners used to provide risk advice, or refer it to the thousands of risk specialists.

   Then the Vested Interest groups and Government led “improvements” came into being which made the provision of risk advice a nightmare, thousands of risk specialist warned that unless there was changes to the unworkable maze, they would leave the Industry, they were ignored and NOW we have hundreds of risk specialists, the holistic Planners cannot work the risk maze and can only react to the massive premium increases due to plummeting New Business sales, when their client threatens to cancel their covers unless something is done, which also threatens the Advisers Investment work.

   This has been clearly articulated for nearly 10 years from experienced Advisers who looked into their crystal balls and saw the future, wrote to the Government, Regulators, Treasury, Associations and anyone who would listen.

   Alas, we were ignored and the vested interest Education guru’s salivated at the Billions of dollars of fees they could charge those 28,000 Advisers.

   When the 28,000 Advisers plummeted to less than 16,000 there was an outcry from these Institutions who did what the Insurers do when their revenue is impacted, they raise the fees on the remaining people.

   NOW, back to solving the problem.

   Blind Freddy can see that when you go from thousands to hundreds of Advisers, that is a problem, not a solution.

   So where did we land to fix the problem?

   We make it much harder, much more expensive and to really throw the cat amongst the pigeons, we make existing risk Advisers do expensive and time consuming studies in fields that have ZERO to do with the work they will perform.

   For new risk Advisers, they are given an even more complex maze, by making them pay a Kings ransom to complete a University degree, of which most of it has ZERO to do with the work they will Advise on.

   They will go into massive debt, have years of nil income and once they complete their term of financial incarceration, they will be forced into another year of low income, more exams, of which nearly all of it, you guessed right, has ZERO to do with what they will be providing advise on.

   And we wonder why virtually zero new risk specialists have entered the Wealth Protection Industry?

   The Life Insurance Industry has collapsed and to prevent foreclosure, have doubled existing loyal clients premiums, which is a short term band aid, not a solution.

   I have been stating for 10 years that Wealth Protection / Life Insurance Advice, MUST be separated from Investment Advice and upfront and ongoing education, must be fit for purpose.

   You do not need a University degree to let people know that they are desperately in need of appropriate Insurance.

   What is needed is a pathway that encourages new people to enter the Industry, not the current maze which does everything in it’s power to stop people entering, of which, for that effort, wins the gold medal of doom.

   I entered the Industry 37 years ago with no University degree.

   What I brought to the table was a willingness to learn the ropes, work hard and do continuous ongoing studies while I built my risk Business, which today, still has a 100% success rate with client claims, nil client complaints and a huge depth of knowledge built from experience that counts for little in our drive for paper shuffling, theory based qualifications.

   Today, I would not even be given a chance to start.

   Log in to Reply