My Dealer Services urges decisive industry action from victorious Labor government

Alexander Euvrard

Self-licensing specialist My Dealer Services (MDS) has called on the Labor government to start its second term with a period of decisive action, focused on growing the number of advice industry professionals and giving the industry clear rules within which it could decide its own destiny.

“With the outgoing Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, admitting he failed to achieve key goals such as removing band-aid solutions and stemming the loss of advisers numbers to the current 15,000, now is the time for decisive action from the new Minister of Financial Services, not continuous promises and inaction,” MDS Director and Founder, Alexander Euvrard said.

Mr Euvrard said that while there has been much talk of DBFO reforms, SOA changes and reducing administration and compliance, these things while important, were all secondary to the imperative of building the industry through increased adviser numbers.

“On the one hand, we are actually in a very favourable environment in that we have a growing demand and a lack of supply. For existing advisers and their practices, it’s a good time to be in business, but that is not sustainable, and it is not ultimately in any of our best interests to stay this way. To succeed, we need to grow, be able to reduce the advice gap and provide succession pathways.

“The only way we will increase the numbers within this profession is to reduce the red tape around the entry level education requirements and remove the policy brick wall that makes it very difficult for people with tertiary qualifications to transition to our industry from any other industry.

“We have heard a lot about how growth will come through efficiencies, technology and outsourcing. Our view is that we have missed the mark on this. The biggest challenge facing advice practises that we see and hear about every day is the lack of advisers to help grow and support these businesses. Unless we get people into the industry, talking about the efficiencies, the technology, the outsourcing is all just noise. It all comes back to making the profession attractive to new entrants and making it achievable to enter,” Mr Euvrard said.