Risk specialist advice snowballs

Speaking to ifa, Affinia general manager Craig Parker said more advisers are joining its network and entering the risk specialist space as they are recognising fewer clients want general advice services.

“Specialisation is here to stay and the reason for that is the market is evolving, and ... the market evolving means consumers are evolving and asking for [specialised advice],” he said.

“[Consumers] don’t want to deal with generals; they want to deal with a specialist that understands what their individual needs are,” he said.

Mr Parker also said he expects advisers from both institutionally-aligned and independent licensees will transition to Affinia’s dealer group network.

“They will come from different areas, whether they are aligned with institutionally-aligned areas, [or] whether they are their own boutique operations,” said Mr Parker.

“We also see growth in new advisers coming into this industry and partnering with [our] advisers,” he said.

Mr Parker also attributed Affinia’s future network growth to the growth of its individual practices and risk specialists referring other advisers to the industry.

“The growth of our network has been [attributed] to two main factors, and that’s been the growth of our individual practices – bringing on new authorised representatives. The second is word of mouth. We have seen advisers within our network referring us like-minded people because they know what they are building, and they want to make sure they have the same type of individuals around the table,” he said.