What would you like to see in 2016?

Aaron Zelman, managing director, MediBroker

Risk-oriented advisers are unfortunately a scarce resource in this country. I don’t mean to be alarmist but the well-meaning regulatory change could make us an engendered species.

Beyond staying up-to-date with industry news, riskies need to get practical and learn about what works and what doesn’t in a thriving and sustainable risk business.

Some questions on my mind include:

• How to find the balance between technically sound advice and losing your client with complexity?
• How to motivate prospects to stop procrastinating and just ‘make it happen’?
• How to make advertising financially rewarding?
• What are consumer attitudes towards paying fees for advice in the risk space?
• How to best engage with clients via video conferencing?

Risk Adviser is a great publication and will only get better with more practical guidance.

Sacha Loutkovsky, director and senior risk adviser, Orion Financial Group

I love hearing what other advisers have to say. It’s not unusual to feel isolated if you work in a small business, so hearing from and getting to ‘know’ other advisers really helps increase the community feel of our profession.

It would be interesting to see if in the coming 12 months there can be more contributions from the product providers and other influential bodies on key issues.

There has been significant adviser commentary and contributions from the AFA; it would be interesting to see more roundtable, in-depth pieces involving a wider range of parties teasing out key issues together.

Sam Perera, principal, Perera Crowther Financial Services

As the industry grapples with accelerated change, it would be useful to get insights from leading practitioners regarding their approaches to owning and running a successful risk business.

The launch of the podcasts was a great initiative and I am looking forward to hearing from other advisers and industry participants sharing their wisdom.

Of course, Risk Adviser is a news publication and up-to-date news regarding industry developments will be important – analysis and commentary by industry leaders will also be helpful.

Could 2016 be the year where Risk Adviser goes one step further and works in collaboration with Aaron Zelman and be the co-organiser of a national Risk Adviser conference?

PJ Byrne, managing director, Mr Insurance

It’s been great to see news specific to risk writers. I know we have been bombarded with the Life Insurance Framework pieces and the pending changers, but it's always said that we don’t do enough to share the stories about the great work we do.

I would like to see more articles/true stories on successful claims, to see the benefits of advice at work and how advisers make a difference at claim time.

I think it would be good to also recognise insurers who have done a great job at this vital time.

Keep up the great work.

Gavin Polmans, risk specialist, Fortnum Financial Advisers

For me, I blame ASIC and the FSC for the predicament we are in. Specialist risk advisers will evolve but this will have negative unintended consequences to many members of the public. Having said that, who is the target market of Risk Adviser?

Initially, I thought it should be risk advisers, but clearly we are powerless. Perhaps it should be the public and their centres of influence such as accountants and lawyers? With respect, many of them have no idea why they/ their clients should consider having a risk adviser in their team as opposed to winging it on their own and trusting a TV advert/organisation to protect their lifestyle.

We, can then use our social media platforms to spread the facts/stories as wide as possible and increase awareness.