Australians willing to pay $800 for retirement income advice
Cost remains a key barrier to Australians receiving financial advice, according to research from Investment Trends. But even with potential efficiency gains and red tape reduction from the Quality of Advice Review, consumers considering advice are only willing to pay $800 to start a retirement income stream.
March 05, 2024
Diverger partners with e-signing company
Diverger has partnered with Australian company Annature to deliver e-signing solutions for financial advisers and accountants in its network.
March 05, 2024
‘Fight tooth and nail’: Coalition appoints super warrior as shadow minister
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has belatedly named a Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation after an almost 12-month vacancy in the portfolio. Luke Howarth, a judo black belt and SMSF advocate, has long sung from the Liberal hymn sheet of a flexible super system and is expected to play an aggressive form of politics in his contested new portfolio ahead of the election.
March 05, 2024
ASIC succeeds in decade old conflicted rem case
The corporate regulator has received a win in Federal Court, which ruled licensee RM Capital failed to take reasonable steps to ensure its authorised representative the SMSF Club did not accept conflicted remuneration. The court found that SMSF Club advised its clients to set up SMSFs to buy property marketed while receiving $5000 for every referral.
March 04, 2024
In Focus: Building a trusted community for businesses wanting to regain control
Self-licensing is a powerful value-add for advice practices that want to control their own destiny, but it can come with the downside of isolation. Civitas Services, who take their name from the Latin word for community, believe in partnering with high-performing, professional practices to drive a community spirit for self-licensed advisers.
March 04, 2024
‘Kodak moment’: Iress restructures Xplan exec team amid financial woes
Xplan owner Iress will split out the product and operations functions of its troubled Australian wealth management division following the resignation of high-profile industry figure Amara Haqqani. But the company’s executive general manager for wealth, Kelli Willmer, says staff are “motivated and excited about the future”.
March 01, 2024
‘Alarming level of discontent’ among PDMs, BDMs a sign of the times
Practice and business development managers are reporting high levels of frustration as they find themselves spread thin and often ill-equipped to deal with the demands of advisers. Research from Business Health to be unveiled this week suggests this isn’t the fault of the individuals per se; rather, it’s likely due to an environment created by their institutional and licensee employers.
March 01, 2024
Over half of Australians support objective of super wording
Over half of Australians have agreed with the proposed objective of superannuation by the government, according to a survey commissioned by the Financial Services Council.
March 01, 2024
UniSuper appoints Morningstar research director to newly created role
UniSuper has nabbed Morningstar’s Annika Bradley as its senior manager, investment specialist (policy and advice).
February 29, 2024
Rise of the multi-partner ‘super firm’
The successful advice practices of the future will be built around a multi-partner model that mitigates key-person risk, otherwise known as a “super firm”, according to advice business consultants. This is despite an estimated half of advice practices still relying on a single-owner model.
February 29, 2024
WT sees profit grow despite advice rationalisation
Rationalisation of the advice business has caused a drop in revenue for WT Financial Group, but a boost in profitability. The listed licensee anticipates a further boost in profitability once the integration of Millennium3 is completed.
February 29, 2024
