A top business consultant in Australia says a growing number of advisers are starting to lose some key perspectives as they struggle to come to terms with financial services industry reforms.
As she prepares to join a National MDRT Adviser Roadshow tour later this month, Slipstream Coaching co-founder, Sharon McClafferty, has told Riskinfo she is seriously concerned about the impact on some advisers (and their businesses) that a seemingly constant barrage of negative publicity surrounding the financial advice profession is having in Australia.
When this negative publicity is then coupled with more regulatory reforms stemming from the Banking Royal Commission fallout, together with the FASEA exam and minimum education requirements, McClafferty says some advisers feel as if they’re simply being ‘smashed’.
She cautions that when the walls are closing around them, these advisers find it very challenging to maintain a balance and perspective between those constant, unrelenting pressures and the rest of their business and personal lives.
McClafferty’s strong message to advisers is to encourage them – as difficult as it may be for many – to momentarily step away from the pressures weighing them down, and to view those perceived difficulties in relation to the maintenance of both their physical and mental wellbeing and their relationships with their friends, family and business colleagues.
At the same time as voicing her concern for those advisers who are struggling to maintain these broader personal and business perspectives, McClafferty has also pointed to other advisers and advice businesses with whom she has contact, who are quietly excited about the future opportunities that this current round of industry reforms may present.
“Change has been such a constant for financial advice businesses over the last decade,” said McClafferty, “…but those advisers who can navigate their way through these reforms – and not lose perspective with the other critically important areas of their personal and business lives – will emerge in a much better position to thrive into the future.