Craig Parker

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and national dealer group Affinia Financial Advisers have joined forces to strengthen practitioner professional development.

AFA CEO Brad Fox said Affinia is one of the first licensees to support the AFA to increase the number of advisers who are members of a professional association and committed to professional development.

“We are delighted to be able to join with Affinia to encourage more advisers to become members of the AFA, while also offering a professional program that enhances both the business performance and professional credibility of their risk specialists.”

As part of the new arrangement, advisers who join Affinia will become members of the AFA (if not already) and be offered Australia’s leading Masters-level professional development training for specialist risk advisers that leads to AFA’s Chartered Life Practitioner (ChLP) designation.

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said the AFA partnership has now been built into Affinia’s own professional development program, the Affinia Risk Academy, to help ensure a high standard of professionalism, training and development.

“Affinia shares the AFA’s goal of increasing professionalism of advisers and we particularly support using development programs that have been purpose-built for advice practitioners.”

“True professionalism means being committed to quality advice through ongoing education, giving back to the profession, and maintaining membership of a peak professional body like the AFA.”

Mr Parker said Affinia’s partnership with the AFA and participation in the Chartered Life Practitioner program helps deliver the confidence consumers need to embrace our profession and seek the financial advice and protection they need.

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National dealer group Affinia Financial Advisers has recruited two additional Business Consultants to complete its new consultancy team.

Nadia Docker joins Affinia as its Business Consultant in Victoria and Tasmania and Natalie Pegg is the new Business Consultant for Western Australia and South Australia. They join Kerrin Glover in NSW/ACT and Belinda James in QLD/NT.

Nadia brings extensive practice management and strategic marketing experience to the role. She previously consulted with 55 boutique practices comprising 250 advisers. She also has experience with the engagement of accountants and mortgage brokers, compliance, and designing tailored marketing solutions for advisers.

Natalie has held a number of consultancy roles with well-known institutions and also has extensive experience as a risk adviser. As an adviser she developed a robust risk offering including life risk advice, technical strategies as well as underwriting and claims services.

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said: “I welcome both Nadia and Natalie as new Business Consultants with the Affinia group and look forward to them working across our practices to help advisers to better service their clients and grow their businesses.

“The Affinia Business Consultant role is unique to the industry because it truly brings management and practice consultancy expertise and experience to advisers rather than just focusing on traditional areas such as product and sales.”

Mr Parker said putting clients at the centre of the business is essential to the role of the financial adviser as the ever-changing social and regulatory environment continues to clearly highlight the ongoing importance of placing customer outcomes first.

“A customer centric advice business is one that is set up for the long term because it delivers optimal outcomes for clients and therefore for the practice. The days of developing practices purely around sales and products without considering the end-to-end process with the client at the centre should become a thing of the past.”

Mr Parker said because Affinia is a specialist life insurance and risk group, its Business Consultants understand the evolving needs of risk practices.

“As the Affinia group works to build partnerships for its practices, Nadia and Natalie’s experience in strategic engagement with mortgage brokers, accountants and consultancies to help them build a financial services offering is a perfect fit for our model,” Mr Parker said.

The team of Business Consultants works with more than 100 advisers across the Affinia group of practices.

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Craig Parker

Widespread increases in the number of claims across the life insurance sector are having a significant impact on financial advisers across Australia, according to national advisory dealer group Affinia Financial Advisers.

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said: “Advisers are spending more of their time now than ever managing claims on behalf of their clients for living insurance*. The recent reporting by all major life insurance companies of large increases in claims on disability and income protection rather than traditional end of life insurance demonstrates the opportunity advisers can bring to consumers”.

“Disability cover and income protection over the past decade have become more popular as consumers consider the impact of not being able to work again. Trauma/critical illness cover in more recent years is also being taken up.”

The result is that the ratio of living to death benefits now sits at an historic high at 2.5:1.

*Percentage of Life (death) insurance v Living benefits insurance (Disability and Income Protection)

Source: TAL Accelerated Protection product.

But Mr Parker said that with recent reports that lawyers have been increasingly acting for clients during a claim, he was concerned many risk advisers were not stepping up to advocate for customers at such a time.

“The increased involvement of lawyers in claims is worrying because this is a role advisers should be performing on behalf of their clients. The involvement of a lawyer will not influence the decision of an insurer. Claims advocacy is the role of the adviser.

“The legal profession may not have the same intimate knowledge of a client’s (and their family’s) personal and financial situation as the adviser does. Nor do they hold the same strong relationship with insurance companies or  the understanding of  the intricacies of each specific product a client may have.”

Mr Parker said claims management is a crucial time for clients, and reducing stress and the time involved demonstrates the value advisers provide.

“Claims advocacy is a key service proposition of the financial advice profession and if this is not carried out during this current period of heightened claims, advisers are missing out on a crucial opportunity to demonstrate their value,” he said.

“This includes helping clients manage a disability, recuperation, return to work and other financial considerations.”

NB: Affinia, which is backed by TAL, operates an open product list (APL) business model that allows its advisers to recommend any life insurance product type from any insurer.

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Craig Parker

Financial advisers are rapidly evolving and the industry is starting to see a new breed of professionals – tackling the challenges of an increasingly complex regulatory environment and heightened consumer activism, says risk specialist dealer group, Affinia Financial Advisers General Manager Craig Parker.

On the day of the launch of a thought leadership campaign for advisers, Mr Parker said that Affinia is empowering its advisers to actively put clients at the centre of their business model, rather than paying lip service to the concept of customer centricity.

“If this industry is going to truly change and be a profession that genuinely embraces customer centricity, we should not have to wait for regulation to drive behaviours and actions,” he said.

“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.”

Yesterday’s campaign launch sees Affinia showcasing leadership examples within the network.

“We are using video and other content to share stories and information on the things we know advisers are seeking.  Our hope is that this will help advisers tap into best in class strategies and techniques to grow their businesses in a sustainable way,” Mr Parker said.

“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.”

One story is a case study of Melbourne adviser Peter Blassis who operates Langley Securities. “Twenty years ago I had the pleasure in presenting a benefit cheque just three weeks into my first role in the industry. Spending two hours with that family and seeing first-hand the impact that advice has on lives is to this day, a key motivator for me and why I put my clients at the centre of my business.”

Another best practice example comes from Brisbane adviser Ralph Woods, who wanted to take his philosophy of client service to the next level. “I knew I had to move away from a transactional finance business to one that put the client at the heart of everything we do. My clients were looking for more, so as a business owner I needed to acknowledge that and make the necessary changes to deliver true value to my clients”

Mr Parker said a problem practices can often experience is not having the right networks or ‘go to’ people to share stories or assist them. Worst of all, they may have the wrong people  telling them how to run their business, not fully appreciating the customer-centric business models they may be seeking to adopt.

“Advisers prefer to learn from practitioners – people who have been successful in changing and growing their businesses.  This campaign is about meeting that need,” he 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. ”

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