ClearView in $20m bid for Matrix to fill ‘very large space’ in advice market
A $20.25 million takeover bid for Matrix Planning Solutions by ClearView Wealth is the latest piece of merger and acquisition activity in the non-aligned financial planning space to underline the sector’s emergence as a genuine and robust alternative to institutionally owned financial planning licensees. Through a merger implementation deed, ClearView will offer Matrix shareholders $7.75
September 01, 2014
Financial planning practice owners ask: Should I stay or should I go?
Financial planning practice owners are becoming increasingly likely to buy or sell as greater certainty takes hold across the industry, according to a consultancy that assists in brokering such deals. Tony McDonald, director of T&C Consulting, says he has been receiving “a lot more inquiries over the last three or four months”. He believes that
September 01, 2014
Why promoting the public interest will win the public’s trust
A week or so ago the president of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Dr Brian Owler, was interviewed on ABC Radio – and other places – about the AMA’s proposed amendments to the government’s $7 co-payment for visits to a general practitioner. Owler spoke knowledgeably, at length and passionately about the need to ensure Australia
September 01, 2014
In focus: The retirement bucket list – why effective solutions require a rethink
In some quarters, nothing short of a top-to-bottom rethink of the financial planning process is considered necessary as increasing numbers of clients retire and find the traditional approach to financial planning and portfolio construction to be wanting. That the traditional approach doesn’t work isn’t the fault of anyone in particular, “because the way things are done at the moment, we [all]
August 31, 2014
Expressions of dissatisfaction: How to effectively respond when a client complains
Every day, thousands of Australian consumers voice their dissatisfaction about the services they receive (or fail to receive, as the case may be) from the professionals they deal with, across a broad range of industries. The financial services industry is certainly not immune from such discontent – in fact, some might argue that client complaints
August 30, 2014
Financial planning practices speak out on adviser education standards
The rush by Australian financial institutions to implement new education standards across their financial advice channels could have wide-ranging impacts at an individual practice level. So says Gareth Hall, managing director of Lifestyle Financial Planning, a Chatswood-based practice that is an authorised representative of the Commonwealth Bank-owned licensee Financial Wisdom. “I think the area it’s
August 29, 2014
Understanding the alphabet soup of financial planning’s new education standards
The financial planning industry is awash in an alphabet soup of accreditations, certifications, designations and qualifications. Whether you’re working in the financial planning businesses of CBA, NAB, AMP, WBC or ANZ, there’s a confusing array of CFP, FChFP, ADFP and MoFP out there. The relevance of these also often hinges on whether you’re part of
August 29, 2014
Superannuation mythbusters on the trail of a retirement income solution
A simple, flexible and robust retirement income solution is staring superannuation funds in the face but trustees have failed to notice it because of entrenched myths and misconceptions surrounding what Australians want and how they behave in retirement, according to Michael Rice, chief executive officer of consulting firm Rice Warner. Rice says that once those
August 29, 2014
Redesigning retirement incomes policy – from the ground up
In recent years retirement income products have been a subject of the Cooper and Henry reviews. Now they are being addressed in the Financial System Inquiry (FSI) and the Government’s review of retirement income stream regulation. Further, appropriate retirement income regulatory design is very much driven by tax and social security expenditure settings, so the
August 27, 2014
Financial planning risk conversations must change in new fact-based landscape
The pursuit of financial security has shifted from a “feeling landscape to a fact landscape” and advisers’ conversations with their clients must reflect this, says Tim Noonan, managing director of capital markets insight, Russell Investments. He points to a flawed definition of risk within the industry, arguing that views of risk as it relates to
August 27, 2014
Financial planners can learn from the Wizard of Oz and building teddy bears
Some financial planners carry on as if they were the Wizard of Oz, terrified that allowing clients to see what is really behind the curtain of financial planning would somehow diminish their power or mystique. In fact, says Dr David Lazenby, principal of ScenarioNow and a psychologist who has worked with elite athletes and the
August 27, 2014
Proof of non-aligned business model emerging in Centrepoint performance
Competing against institutional subsidisation of advice businesses is a challenge for all non-aligned licensees, but one which forces them to be highly competitive on a range of other factors, according to the managing director of Centrepoint Alliance, John de Zwart. The key to competing successfully is to “be clear about who we are and what
August 25, 2014
