Letters to the Editor

“Hi Peter, I retired as an Adviser last June, though my son Brett, who is also a Director in our Businesses, has stayed on as an Adviser. I am still actively involved in everything that is occurring and we are working closely with many interested parties to bring about some positive changes, so Advice practices will be able to provide risk advice in a profitable manner with less stress and be able to cut down their time and compliance burden which has been a cause for many Advisers to cut back on providing Life/Disability advice services. All the best for this year and let us hope life can get back to some sense of normality.”

“Hi Jeremy, I remember an interview you did a year ago stating you wouldn't be an adviser post January 1st last year. Are you out or still in ...and if so what has changed your position?”

“The time for the dabate on education standards has gone, it is now up to inidividual advisers who want to stay in the industry to get on with their required studies and attain the appropriate certifications. Continued debate and lobbying of government to reduce education standards only devalues the proffession in the eyes of the public.”

“The objective of the Quality of Advice review and desired outcome of raising the professionalism of Financial Planners and improving access to professional financial advice for consumers, appears to be having the, "for every action, there will be a reaction" affect. On the one hand, all this additional required study and Regulatory requirements, is creating more theory based knowledge, though has led to over ten thousand Advisers exiting the Industry, a trickle of new entrants and a hesitancy for practice owners who are already snowed under with complying, then trying to find the time and resources to bring on and train new Advisers. The Advised Life Insurance sector is in trouble, as it has become too hard to specialise due to most of the education requirements having NIL bearing on the work risk specialists do. It is a great idea to have specialist training by separating risk advice from Investment advice, which could then allow holistic Financial Planners to bring on risk specialists into their Business, without forcing them to do irrelevant study, to help bring the cost and time down to make it feasible. Why is no-one asking the obvious question, or even wondering why Insurance advice has become too hard and very little is being done now in this very important space? The answer is staring everyone in the face and if the Government, Treasury, the Regulators, Associations and all other interested parties found the time to ask Advice practice owners why is this the case, then the above is both the reason and the answer to fix this issue. Or, we can just continue to watch the Advised Life Insurance sector continue it's downhill slide, watch more advisers leave, insufficient new advisers enter the Industry and Life / Disability premiums continue to rise to the point where clients cancel and the spiral continues.”