The function, which will be held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Sydney on 30 November, will also feature a panel discussion on Australia’s economic future, hosted by former NSW Liberal Leader Kerry Chikarovski.

The event mirrors a similar event organised by Dr Virtue last year which attracted around a hundred financial services representatives, including finance industry leaders, the heads of financial services associations and financial advisers from every state.

“We expect this year’s event to draw an even bigger crowd, given the present economic climate and the high level of activity going on in the finance and financial services industries,” Dr Virtue said.  “We believe the industry is very keen to hear the Coalition’s vision for the Australian Economy as we move into election mode and are looking forward to hearing Senator Cormann’s view of the world.”

Senator Cormann has been very vocal in his criticism of the Labor Government’s handling of the economy and specific issues such as the mining tax, the budget deficit, elements of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms and MySuper.

Bookings for the function, which also includes a unique food and wine experience from a group of South Australian sponsor companies, can be made by clicking here.

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Starting with FOFA, which after the fanfare of the original ministerial statement two years ago on Anzac Day, ended with barely a whimper. In essence, most of the contentious areas being pushed back into regulations which will no doubt be hotly debated over the next six months.

Given the state of the polls and the Coalition’s stated intention to amend or repeal aspects of both FOFA and Stronger Super, one wonders if this has not been a lost few years. To my mind, the saddest part of this saga was the lack of a credible Regulatory Impact Statement, which was the least the industry deserved. This was coupled with a policy vacuum played out by vested interests in the public media.

For those of us with accounting practices, we are still no nearer getting clarity on the replacement to the’ accountants exemption’ due to expire shortly. Add this to the adverse political decisions on future superannuation contributions and no wonder both clients and their advisers are far from happy.

The reality of being in practice is, of course, that you have to get on with meeting clients’ needs and adjust to the circumstances you find yourself in. The advent of social media and improved online technology is a real plus in being able to communicate with clients more frequently and with greater efficiency.

There is much we can learn from other industries that have embraced new technology to provide improved services to clients, notably in travel and tourism. The challenge, as always, is to make incremental improvements to the business processes while retaining the  close personal relationships with clients that remain the unique competitive advantage of a boutique licensee. As usual it is not the quickest or fastest adviser that will win  in this environment, but the one who can adapt best  to the changing environment that is currently providing both threats and opportunities.

On a more positive note, I have the opportunity to again teach a further twenty students in Financial Planning at Flinders University. This will include a significant number of overseas students sponsored in part by the World Bank, who will then return to difficult home environments.

For all our internal issues, the fact is that Australia remains a leader in global financial planning with a mature and experienced workforce that many other countries would love to emulate. For those of you able to help, I will be looking to place these students in work placements for three weeks in late July.

A great opportunity exists for you to get access to highly skilled labour and make an active contribution to educating the next generation of financial advisers.

The post Challenging circumstances can provide opportunties appeared first on AdviserVoice.

First our thoughts are naturally with all the clients and colleagues affected by the recent floods. In particular the many regional advisors who are working tirelessly and selflessly to help their local communities through these difficult times. It is at times like this that the real value of locally based advisors in the community can help with their years of experience and local knowledge. Hopefully Adviservoice can be a conduit for keeping us all engaged and involved in Industry issues. We would love to hear some stories of the real differences advisors are making in their local communities at this time.

Like many firms we are doing our annual planning and budgeting to meet our clients’ needs and sadly the uncertainty of the current Government’s proposals make this a difficult task with confidence in our legislators continuing to deteriorate. The proposed changes introducing ‘My Super’ were poorly thought through with the public expected to retain a standard asset allocation throughout their pre and post retirement years without the need for advice. This will be a recipe for disaster when adverse markets material affect returns in the short term and systems and advice processes are not valued and supported to help the public through these critical years. A better solution would have been to have focused on the excessive risk retirees are taking to get a acceptable return and to interface guaranteed income streams in retirement with social security benefits.

Similarly the proposed annual opt in provisions which started out as an ambit claim from Sussex St and became a rallying call for the ‘Industry Fund Network’ demonstrates a serious lack of judgement that it would even be considered. Having travelled and spoken in China, the US and UK in recent times I can confirm that no other pension market is considering such an extraordinary reckless act. Again a better answer would be to have free and fair competition and advertising between all sections of the marketplace. The level of advice needed for an Industry Fund Member which has an average balance of $20k would be different to a Self Managed Fund with an average balance of $450k, hence principles based legislation provides the flexibility to meet the customer requirements of the different market segments.

At the heart of the future retirement issues we face as a nation is the need to improve engagement with the public Could it be that the 80% of the public currently supposedly disengaged with super are the same ones who are not making personal contributions. Conversely could it be that the 20% who do actively contribute are the ones fully engaged and who wish to put in higher contributions than are currently allowed. To my mind we need joint contributions from both employers and employees to get adequate retirement benefits which again is common when you look at comparable systems around the world.

Well that’s how I see it so for me it’s back to the planning and budgeting. Hopefully some commonsense and commercial experience can be brought to bear and replace the mindless politicking currently being observed failing which we could seriously be looking at the ‘Balkanisation’ of the industry. It is time for good men and women to stand up and get this debate back on track the retirees of Australia deserve a lot better.

The post Let’s kickstart the retirement debate in 2011 appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Thanks for the feedback on the AFA advertising initiative.

Like many practioners I am trying to work through the potential ramifications of the proposed FOFA changes to advice. While the politics of market share behind these proposals are easy to understand the economic ramifications are very serious with several takeovers from overseas  interests of iconic Australian Company’s underway and others in the pipeline. The current regulatory uncertainty has all but stopped investment and recruitment in the advice sector at a time when Australians should be benefiting from improving market sentiment. This has a very eerie resemblance to similar issues in the mortgage market which led to reduced competition due to the squeeze and ultimate collapse of the smaller independent providers.

In our practice we service around 1500 clients of very varied needs and circumstances. Our top clients pay fees by cheque and have in excess of $1m to invest; our middle clients pay by adviser fees and brokerage via Wraps and Corporate Super Plans, while our poorest clients are attended to on a loss basis for help with budgeting and  Centrelink.  A number attend a Soup Kitchen we support in our local community on a Monday night. Where appropriate clients have a service agreement with us which they cancel on 30 days notice which provides a fair and competitive environment for us  and for clients to retain control of the payment process.

I have always believed that advice should be available and affordable to all Australians and that Advisors should not just pick the most profitable clients but provide a wider service to the whole community  and in particular the weak and vulnerable. The proposed changes would eliminate this with Advisors forced to manage a smaller client base with a stricter client qualification criteria. The very people who need help will then be left to fend for themselves and become prey to unlicensed advisors and property spruikers. The number of working families with access to ongoing advice from qualified advisors would substantially diminish.

I have  observed firsthand the absolute chaos a similar approach caused in the UK, my country of birth. There three of the four major banks are affectively controlled and owned by the Government and the Advice Industry has ceased to function efficiently I only hope that we learn from this and that wise heads can prevail over political imperatives. The real issues of an ageing workforce who need stable income in retirement is far more important than mindless undermining of the industry by certain vested interests.

Let me know what you think I’m off to help at the soup kitchen tonight.

Till next time

Tony

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