Estate planning a missed opportunity for riskies

Speaking at the AFA’s Life Insurance Roadshow in Sydney last week, Elixir Consulting managing director Sue Viskovic said that with the Life Insurance Framework set to reduce how much risk specialists earn, these advisers should look towards expanding their services with estate planning as a means to recoup their losses.

“There are a number of really natural adjuncts to a risk-only advice proposition and it astounds me still that so many specialist in risk do not handle the estate planning element of clients’ affairs,” Ms Viskovic said.

“[Risk advisers] already take [clients] half-way down a journey and talk about their mortality, what is going to happen to their family, and how they are going to handle that.

“That is a really important and valuable part of [risk advisers’] value proposition,” she said.

Ms Viskovic said that another area in which risk specialists can recover their losses from the Life Insurance Framework – if they do not want to introduce fees – is by becoming more efficient.

“Have a look around at where there are some stages that you can get better at what you do, and help your team become more efficient,” she said.

“Are you using technology as best you can? Are you improving and streamlining the administrative processes that will still allow you to have the face-to-face human bonding relationship advice time with your clients?

“You may need to attract more clients. It makes sense, if you are getting less revenue per client and you want to keep the same income – you need to get more clients,” Ms Viskovic said.