- Yes (66%)
- No (27%)
- Not sure (8%)
Many financial advisers will face the prospect of having to prove their skills and add to their qualifications once new professional and education standards pass through parliament, but not all see this as a good thing.
Industry consultant Paul Tynan believes even with an accommodating transition program to a new set of standards many older, and more experienced, advisers will instead step out of the industry for good.
However, Tynan says these advisers can still serve the industry and should be licensed as ‘relationship advisers’, helping younger advisers to grow their business and build their own books, while still receiving ongoing commission income as they transition into retirement.
Tynan’s suggestion touches upon a wider issue of what becomes of advisers who are impacted by legislative change but are close to the end of their careers and for whom the change will make little or no difference. It also leads to the question of how can the financial advice sector retain the experience and skills of senior advisers in these circumstances.
Should older advisers be allowed to stay in the industry as licensed ‘relationship advisers’ providing guidance to the emerging generation?
No. It’s called consulting. They can charge fees for their service and advice in guiding advisers if that is what they want to do and how they add value. Stop trying to hold on to the past.
Charging for risk advice, in isolation, has been written about to death – IT DOESN’T WORK. When will you people learn?
Great comment below from Tired. If people with insufficient qualifications are so valuable, they should change their business model and become consultants to the qualified advisers who have no ‘soft skills.’ They should charge a fee for this work (because people value what the service they provide) and they can use this income to transition to retirement.
It seems ironic that people with little “real” experiance running successful Risk practices and educated people with NIL experiance, are now the purveyors of all knowledge who will also now provide the necessary skills to help all clients going forward.
Forget decades of Business skills and the minor detail that experianced advisers employ many of the people working in the Industry, which is paid for from renewal income and which if ceases due to a box not having been ticked, then a consultancy fee will not cover a fraction of those expenses, with the subsequent rise in unemployment, less Insurance sold and less Tax revenues for the Government to spend on Vocational Education.
Speaking of which, the scandal plagued vocational education industry where just one Sydney firm was paid $111 million dollars for 117 students to get a bit of paper, if that is the future and the brave new world we are expected to live in, then god help all of us.
Not one of those 117 students employ anyone, yet we paid for those bits of paper and we still get back to the same old question, what experiance and real world practical skills do these people bring to the table.
We are heading into a world of educated people with little to offer, except a framed bit of paper.
Well said Jeremy. Makes me recall one of, I think, Bob Ansett’s catch-phrases: “The world is full of educated derelicts” (I’m paraphrasing). He was talking about attitude and how that creates success and the debilitating emphasis placed on certain types of “unnecessary” higher education for the sake of it when there’s an unemployment problem with young people to begin with.
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Just look to America and how a uni degree is more a guarantee of a life in serfdom rather (paying back uni loans) than a guarantee of career success. Too sad for them over there right now and it is developing here right in our industry, attempting to unnecessarily train risk writers up to the level of bond, derivative, options and stock trading experts to write a simple Term policy. Ridiculous and harmful to the industry. The sooner two things happen the better: 1) separate licence for risk writers and 2) get this ‘older adviser mentoring program happening – without it our industry is doomed, at least the industry we know and (used to) love.
Jeremy, it is far more than a piece of paper, education is the very essence that will progress our economies. As without education society would stagnate.
If it keeps going like this we will all be the most educated people on the dole line.
At one time in the not so distant past AMP had ridiculous training and exam expectations of its advisers They were so busy trying to stay compliant many left the industry. IS THAT THE OVERALL PLAN ? Make it impossible to find time to earn a living ! Education is important but ” one size does not fit all!”
I totally agree there should be high standards of education. My concern is that the education needs to be relevant to the areas in which the adviser is to practice. I specialise in risk and give no investment advice at all. Will gaining a general degree help me help my clients with their insurance in any way? Will completing in a course on TTRs (or any other non insurance related financial planning sector) help me help my clients with their insurance in any way? Will completing a course teaching me to write computer code or anything else not related to what I actually do help me help my clients with their insurance in any way? If the answer to these questions is ‘no’, why is it even under discussion? Put simply, I should not be allowed to discuss insurance with any member of the public until I know all aspects of the subject back to front. Once I can prove i have that knowledge, let me begin my career. Once practicing, if I can prove I am compliant, keeping my relevant knowledge up to date and putting my client’s interests to the fore, let me continue. And if I can’t prove all that, it should be illegal for me to have any discussion with a member of the public whether I am a planner or employed within or associated with the industry. Ditto if I want to provide advice and / or recommend any product, fund, investment or service relating to any other financial services sector.
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