Adviser refutes declining community claims

Last week, Futuro Financial Services executive chairman Dennis Bashford said the sense of community and companionship is something the advice industry “has largely lost over the past 10 years”.

“Today, there is much less face-to-face industry interaction with such things as monthly industry association functions and fund managers’ presentations being replaced with webinars, Go-To meetings and video conferencing – all of which largely denies us the opportunity to mix with and get to know our colleagues on a more personal basis,” Mr Bashford said.

In response, adviser for Treysta Financial Life Management Ray Jaramis refuted Mr Bashford's claims, telling ifa "the future is bright for the current community of young financial advisers to drive real change".

“The financial advice industry continues to grow and I encourage all advisers to embrace this as a great opportunity to learn from each other, enabling improvements through technology, peer reviews, education, displaying best-practice and demonstrating enhanced services offerings,” Mr Jaramis said.

Mr Jaramis noted significant differences in behaviour and culture do exist between different adviser groups.

But he added that, much like the national economy is referred to as ‘two-speed’, financial advice is “a two-speed industry”.

“You will find pockets of advisers who are enthusiastic about creating opportunities for collaboration and use each other as a platform to raise the bar for us all,” Mr Jaramis said.

“And then you will read about advisers who are isolating themselves using technology to veil themselves from their peers. We are in a two-speed industry.”

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].