Linking Life Events With Provision of Advice

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The idea to tie life events more strongly to certain forms of advice was put forward at the Financial Services Council’s Breakfast event ‘Advice at the Crossroads’, held in June at the ANZ Centre.

Whilst in attendance at the event, adviser consultant, Tony Vidler spoke out, saying, “I’m a massive believer in the fact that at different points in consumers’ lives, directly interacting with an institution via product is appropriate, sourcing information from government is appropriate and getting personalised advice is appropriate, depending on the complexities in your lives.”

He added: “So there’s a place and a role for all of the players in the game in the consumer’s life at different points.”

The panellists at the breakfast included Financial Advice New Zealand CEO, Katrina Shanks, Rebecca Sellers of Melior Law, Chatswood Consulting’s Russell Hutchinson and Graham Rich of Portfolio Construction Forum.

“…there’s a place and a role for all of the players in the game in the consumer’s life at different points.”

Shanks agreed with the attendee and said there are, “…different times when you are going to reach out for financial advice and there are also different age groups as you go up the different needs in your life – when you have your first baby, when you buy your first car, when you buy your first house, when you retire…”

She described reaching for the point where advice were to become normalised, just like seeing a doctor for your health throughout life, there are different checkpoints for maintaining financial health.

The panel event raised a number of important issues discussed by the panellists, including the suggestion that the industry turn to employment as a channel to connect people with the concept of financial advice (see: Tap Into Employment…).

The divide between sales versus advice was also debated, with Sellers saying, “I think it’s fair to say that people don’t want to pay for advice and they don’t value advice and that is just a huge problem in our industry.

She added she didn’t have an answer but there was a need for a better distinction between sales and advice.

Encouraging future advisers into the profession was discussed, with Shanks mentioning that the new body is forming a campaign to reach out to universities to establish a presence at orientation weeks and showing young students that they will be a modern, vibrant and exciting association to be involved with.

Roboadvice was also touched on and Sellers said a human relationship will always be integral to advice.

“It’s an industry about getting people to think about things that they don’t like to think about, it’s an industry about caring what happens to people…,” she explained. “…we want to live in a caring society where people are looked after and financial services play a key part in that.”