Financial advisers have been urged to look forward and focus on higher education and professional standards as vanguards of change, instead of revisiting past and current regulatory changes which cannot be changed.
Connect Financial Service Brokers, chief executive, Paul Tynan said financial advisers will not be alone in having to lift standards but are perceived as at the forefront of change ahead of other advice sectors such as mortgage broking and real estate.
“The advice sector is moving to a professional footing and ongoing reform that reinforces and supports this framework is the endeavour of the regulators and industry bodies,” Tynan said.
“At the end of all this change, financial advisers will be highly regarded experts and their services paid for in the same manner as those of the accounting, legal, etc professions”.
“The financial advice sector is seen as the pioneer for change with other sectors such as mortgage, real estate, etc taking note as they will soon be dealing with similar changes a lot sooner than many expected”.
“…advisers should stop referring to the ‘good old days’…”
Tynan said advisers should stop referring to the ‘good old days’ as well as the changes under the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) legislation and the Life Insurance Framework (LIF) and consider whether they will be able to attain appropriate education and industry qualification standards that will be coming into effect this year.
He pointed to the fact that from January 1st of this year financial advice licensees and representatives have to be registered with the Tax Practitioners Board if they meet the transitional or standard eligibility requirements.
