Affinia General Manager, Craig Parker, has issued a challenge to the advice industry to stop paying lip service to the concept of customer centricity, and to stand up and self-regulate.
Mr Parker argued that if the industry wanted to transform into a profession that genuinely puts the customer at the heart of everything it does, then advisers should not wait for regulation to drive behaviours and actions.
“The advice community should stand up and self-regulate, and impose high standards to ensure we deliver the confidence for consumers to embrace the advice profession as we seek to help more Australians obtain the financial advice and protection they need,” he said.
To help advisers meet this challenge, Affinia has launched a ‘thought leadership’ campaign, to showcase best practice and professionalism. The campaign, called The Future Project, includes a collection of videos featuring practising advisers sharing their business success stories. According to Affinia’s website, The Future Project provides insights into how advisers have partnered with Affinia to created future-focused, future-proofed risk advice businesses.
We work in an amazing industry
“Advisers prefer to learn from practitioners – people who have been successful in changing and growing their businesses. This campaign is about meeting that need,” Mr Parker said.
“We work in an amazing industry, an industry that still has much work to do to ensure all Australians can sleep better at night. We hope that this campaign is the start of an ongoing conversation – to share the stories of best practice and success that will encourage more and more advisers to build tomorrows businesses, today.
“We are sharing this not only within our own network but the wider advice community to contribute to its ongoing and evolving professionalism. This is about engaging the community in a conversation about how we deliver on the promise of advice for the end customer,” he added.
Click here to view the videos.
Really this is nothing new. We know that being client-focused is fundamental to gaining and maintaining a successful business – in any field. That said, many professions hardly put their clients first. Do solicitors always do that? Do doctors? Many in our profession/occupation are very ethical and care more about their clients than those in the traditional professional roles.
Clients themselves have a role in the engagement process. Many are difficult to contact and don’t return phone calls. And they sit on proposals for weeks at a time when urgent action is needed. It’s a two-way street – we can’t control the actions of our clients even though we might endeavour to influence them. So personal responsibility is not yet dead even though lawyers seem to be cashing in on making it irrelevant.
A universal principle shared by all established professions is, amongst other things, self-regulation.
It therefore goes without saying that if financial planning is to be considered a true profession that we must self-regulate.
As there seems to be a common goal amongst almost all involved in the industry (practitioners, clients, product manufacturers, government and so on) for financial planning to be become a profession it necessarily follows that we must then self-regulate.
One more voice in a chorus singing from the same song sheet does nothing. All we end up with is a pretty, harmonious tune.
A call for self-regulation is now useless unless it is followed by an unequivocal demand for mandatory membership of a professional body.
Careful what we wish for here you could end up being one of the millions of educated derelicts unemployed.
Regulation is yes important, but through mandatory membership that’s not the answer, the FPA is making entry only possible if you have a University degree.
So lets say the FPA becomes the body Jamie talks about you will not enter or become a member unless you have a full University degree.
So if you have been in the industry for 25 years and no University degree find a new job.
Hi Matthew
In the absence of a body to enforce the regulations, how are you proposing they be developed, monitored and enforced? ?
As far as degrees are concerned, another universally shared principle common to all professions is a high, minimum level of competence including academic qualifications and industry experience. There are no professions that do not require a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) as a minimum standard.
That is not to suggest that a bachelor’s degree is where it starts and finishes. It isn’t experience counts as does continued learning.
In my opinion, a bachelor’s degree is the very, very minimum that a consumer should expect as evidence of their adviser’s commitment to competence.
I realise that there are plenty of education derelicts without job (although I doubt that there are millions) however, there wouldn’t be too many with vocational degrees.
Either way, I’m not suggesting that a degree be the only competence standard but a minimum standard.
Given a choice, I’d seek advice from a grey-hair without a degree over a masters student fresh out of uni any day of the week.
However, frankly, when I’m seeking advice, whether it be legal, medical or financial, I like to know that my adviser/medico/lawyer has met minimum education standards and has experience.
I recognise that there are a lot of very experienced and well qualified advisers currently practicing and don’t for a moment suggest that there should not be some sort of grandfathering. However, a line should be drawn and a degree required as a minimum educational standard.
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