The financial advice sector risks losing another cohort of older, competent and experienced advisers as it did during the introduction of the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA) unless new opportunities can be found to retain them in advice related roles.
While the departure of mature advisers in their 50s and 60s, due to life insurance reforms, would reduce the pool of talent, ClearView General Manager of Distribution, Christopher Blaxland-Walker said the advice sector would also lose its emotional connection with the thousands of clients of those advisers.
Blaxland-Walker made the claim as part of a whitepaper, What’s Old is New Again, released this week by ClearView in which he stated that the exodus which followed the introduction of the FSRA in 2004 could be avoided in 2017 by a collective effort from licensees, professional associations and product manufacturers.
“FSRA got rid of many unqualified and poorly qualified agents, and rightly so, but in the confusion many competent mature advisers exited too. They weren’t adequately supported to gain the necessary qualifications, adjust their business models and manage the transition.”
“FSRA got rid of many unqualified and poorly qualified agents…but in the confusion many competent mature advisers exited too.”
Blaxland-Walker said that many advisers at risk of exiting the industry still had the ability and capacity to continue providing advice but were under pressure from the remuneration reforms under LIF and stricter education and training requirements.
He called on licensees, professional associations and product manufacturers to provide training and tools to help advisers transition their business to the new remuneration model or provide other advisory roles for those who wanted to move away from giving day-to-day advice.
These roles included acting as mentors in informal and formal capacities and the creation of flexible ‘relationship manager’ roles within practices, licensees and insurers who could handle client-facing responsibilities such as welcoming new and prospective clients, connecting them to an adviser, articulating the value of advice and handling claims.
“The current generation of advisers are more educated and technically proficient than any other but they can still learn skills and qualities like empathy and resilience from mature advisers. If the industry can successfully close the generation knowledge gap, the result will be a profession that’s mastered the art of winning new clients and building personal relationships not only business relationships,” Blaxland-Walker said.
