Speaking on a panel session at last week’s Financial Services Council conference, Centrepoint Alliance chief executive John de Zwart said while he expects there will be an increase in scaled advice and a decrease in the proportion of full advice, it will be hard to service clients under the new regime at an effective price.
Count Financial chief executive David Lane added that “practically, you just wonder if it works.”
“After you’ve gone through a financial needs analysis to figure out if you can scope it it isn’t much more work to give actual holistic advice. You ask yourself the question, can you really do it at a better price point than what currently exists?” Mr Lane said.
Herbert Smith Freehills partner Michael Vrisakis suggested the regulatory piece may also make it difficult to provide scoped advice.
The legislation as it currently stands has “inbuilt reticence” in terms of allowing an adviser and to fully agree to the scope of advice, he said.
“Until we can solve that ambiguity around how far you can go to get scoped and scaled advice we’re going to continue to have this problem [with] advisers and dealer groups not knowing how far you can go in terms of trying to scale that advice to provide accessible affordable advice,” he said.
Perpetual chief executive Geoff Lloyd he was hopeful technology would come to provide an answer in terms of cost.
But he added that “unless we can ring fence that liability, we’re not going to make any progress.”
Still wondering: you make the mistake of thinking everyone is in this industry to look after clients needs. I agree with you though.
It’s the land grab between the instos and the ISN’s and their influence on policy that are corrupting the entire landscape.
The smaller guys like us are the ones who actually care, aren’t being listened to and are suffering under a ridiculous regulatory burden that helps no-one.
Hoping that technology will be able to provide the answer to cost? Where does the professional experience & specific tailoring come in when giving advice in this view. If we are relying on technology & doing this to a price then everyone gets the same advice. There is no scope for personalisation, professional review and experience to be applied, as this takes time, effort & money, something that is being overlooked. Industry funds have convinced everyone that price is the only factor so that they and all phone based support providers can provide their on the phone no documentation no personalisation scaled advice model. Otherwise they could not provide professional, personal & experienced advice to its members without a significant charge to each member or without providing a large cross subsidisation from its other members which of course it is not supposed to do. We need to step back & look at what is in the best interest of clients and sometimes it is to pay a little more.