Number of CFP professionals worldwide tops 150,000
Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB), owner of the international Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification program, reported that the number of CFP professionals worldwide reached 153,376 CFP professionals at year-end 2013, up almost 5,500 or 3.76 percent from year-end 2012. For the second year running, FPSB’s member organization in the U.S. and People’s Republic of China
January 28, 2014
E-commerce a key theme at 2014 SPAA conference
Delegates at the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) national conference will gain a better understanding of the significant e-commerce challenges of new contribution arrangements that come into effect on July 1. SPAA’s director of technical and professional standards, Graeme Colley, says a key underlying message from the event will be “the impact of e-commerce
January 28, 2014
Rubik builds revenue and commission management software offering with key acquisitions
Rubik Financial Limited (Rubik, ASX:RFL), the ASX-listed provider of financial technology and software, continues to build Australia’s most comprehensive and inclusive revenue and commission software solution for financial planners, by announcing today: – completion of its transaction with Revex Solutions Pty Ltd, as announced 19 July 2013, allowing for exclusive distribution of Revex software to
January 24, 2014
Want to target SMSFs? Forget FUM
Financial planners who want to most effectively service the burgeoning self-managed super fund market need to abandon a traditional reliance on funds under management to generate revenue and concentrate instead on charging a fee for providing professional services, a leading industry consultant says. Tony McDonald, the former managing director of the ASX-listed Snowball Financial Group
January 23, 2014
SPAA backs review of SMSF borrowing, advice
The SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) has thrown its support behind reviewing limited-recourse borrowing arrangements (LBRA) and a proposal that anyone providing advice on any aspect of a self-managed super fund’s investments should be licensed. SPAA’s director of technical and professional standards, Graeme Colley, says the Cooper review of the superannuation system recommended such
January 23, 2014
TAL and UniSuper preview the future of tech in the insurance sector
It is fair to say life insurers have not been at the vanguard of technology; but consumer and customer needs are driving the transformation of systems, processes and a service culture in an industry that historically has changed little over a long period. But within this industry, TAL has been at the forefront of technological advances in the domestic life sector. This
January 23, 2014
Cerulli research finds 43% of all US advisors are at or approaching retirement
According to new research from global analytics firm Cerulli Associates, 43% of all financial advisors are either at or are approaching retirement. “The average age of all financial advisors is 50.9 and 43% are over the age of 55,” reports Kenton Shirk, associate director at Cerulli. “Nearly one-third of advisors fall into the 55 to 64 age
January 23, 2014
Financial advisers recognised through the 2013 Hillross Awards Program
Advisers from Sydney, Perth and Albury have scooped the pool in the annual 2013 Hillross Awards Program, taking out the Hillross Adviser of the Year, New Adviser of the Year and Hillross Advisory Firm of the Year categories at a ceremony in Melbourne last night. The 2013 Hillross Awards Program is open to advisers and
January 22, 2014
John de Zwart on a mission to “bring back the fun”
John de Zwart is on a mission – a mission to improve the professionalism and profitability of financial planning, and to restore to the business much of the satisfaction and fun that it used to provide to practitioners. Since mid-April 2013, de Zwart has been redefining the strategy for Professional Investment Services (PIS) and Associated
January 21, 2014
A true independent is born as Smythe strikes out on his own
The number of financial planning businesses that meet the Corporations Act definition of “independent” is tiny, but that number has now grown by one, after Heffron director Ben Smythe established his own firm in the Sydney suburb of Brookvale. Smythe Financial Management was established in October 2013 after a year of planning, operating with its
January 21, 2014
A giant awakes: Inside ANZ’s SMSF push
A partnership with SuperIQ underpins a broad strategy by ANZ to develop a comprehensive self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) service. A second step involves working with groups such as the SMSF Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) to train financial planners to establish SMSFs for clients. The bank’s SMSF strategy involved ANZ selling its wholly-owned accounting, tax
January 21, 2014
Tough time ahead for recruiting good financial planning staff
Financial planning remains a “candidate-short” market and the next six months at least will see fierce competition between firms to hire the best staff, according to a leading recruitment agency. Nick Murphy, regional director for recruitment firm Hays, says financial planning businesses need to “start thinking outside the box” when looking for staff and not
January 21, 2014
