Research reveals a major roadblock, but also shows the way around it
Three pieces of high-quality research, all released this week, highlight the massive divide that exists in people’s perceptions of financial planners, and the enormous challenge that financial planning still faces to be taken seriously as a profession in this country. On the one hand we saw the release of the Lifeplan Financial Advice Satisfaction Index,
May 02, 2014
BT denies Wrap lacks transparency and withholds crucial client information
BT Financial Group has rejected claims that BT Wrap lacks transparency and that it has refused to divulge crucial information needed to manage client portfolios. The managing director of boutique fund manager Sirius Fund Management, Keiren Kelly, said he has spent six months trying to obtain information from BT Wrap in a series of email
May 01, 2014
Cheap and nasty: the real cost of discount dealers
There are super-cheap dealer groups around willing to license financial advisers for as little as $1050 per month plus GST. For this cut-throat price, authorised representatives have access to traditional dealer services such as licensing, research and technical support. The website of one discount dealer group proudly boasts it has 50 advisers on board. Based on
April 30, 2014
Why vertical integration should stop with the licensee, not start there
The second partner firm to join Bombora Advice will be in place by the end of the month, and the firm is on track to have five partner firms in place by June 30. The second firm to join the group will be the Brisbane-based Personal Risk Professionals (PRP), which currently operates under the National
April 30, 2014
A new era: the rise of the financial planning academic
The roots of financial planning are in insurance agents and stockbrokers who sought out a way to deliver better advice and guidance to their clients. Similarly, the roots of financial planning education have long been in “adult education” certificate programs that took experienced and active advisors back to school to gain the educational knowledge they
April 30, 2014
Why vertical integration is just a symptom of a much deeper disease
The issue of vertical integration has raised its head again (as if it ever really went away), as submissions to the government’s Financial System Inquiry (FSI) focus on planners being coerced to place clients’ funds into investment products manufactured by the same institutions that own the financial planners’ licensees. Vertical integration is a rational and
April 28, 2014
Dominance of traditional platforms under threat
The evolution of the financial advice industry is seeing managed accounts emerge as the preferred investment and administration vehicle for many investors, SMSFs and advisers. David Heather explains. Managed accounts are not a recent development in Australia. They have existed in various forms since the 1990s. Some industry reports claim that managed accounts are only a
April 28, 2014
Why creating a financial planning profession may be easier said than done
The word “profession” has been liberally thrown around in the various reports, articles and opinion pieces on the proposed Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) amendments. Let me state at the outset that I am very interested in the concept, and I facilitate the professionalism course for the Actuaries Institute three times each year. That course
April 23, 2014
The 20c Paddle Pop – and why I was doomed to be an economist
I started school on the Gold Coast in 1973. During that first year of school, my weekly banana Paddle Pop cost five cents from the school tuckshop. By the end of 1974, the price of that same Paddle Pop had risen fourfold to the princely sum of 20 cents. I asked the tuck shop lady
April 23, 2014
A prism approach to profitability in a FoFA world
With the FoFA laws being debated once again, it is a herculean task for any financial advisory business to construct a formula for profitability, whilst navigating through layers of compliance that range from law to regulatory guidance to best practice. Irrespective of what the outcome is relating to grandfathering, the costs of doing business in
April 23, 2014
Call to delay TASA financial adviser regime as key compliance information remains unclear
The professional standards manager for Centrepoint Alliance, Rhett Das, has called for a delay to the June 30 implementation of the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA) for financial planners because key pieces of compliance information still are not confirmed. Das (pictured) told the Professional Investment Services (PIS) conference in Shanghai that it is impossible for
April 16, 2014
Be good, add value and be available: the secret to ‘guaranteed’ referrals
A benchmarking study of the top practices in the Professional Investment Services (PIS) network will create the foundation of a program to reduce expenses and increase revenue and profit for practices across the network. PIS has worked with the research firm Beddoes Institute to benchmark its top practices against the top practices in the Beddoes
April 14, 2014
