Steve Helmich

TAL is committed to the important role that independent financial advisers provide in delivering quality advice to Australian consumers. To support that commitment TAL is re-affirming the importance of its growing Affinia business with two key appointments: Mr Steve Helmich as Chair to the Affinia Board and Marcus O’Sullivan as Head of Affinia.

Affinia is a specialised licensee of independent risk advisers and offers advisers a life risk business culture with rigorous compliance frameworks, technology tools and professional development.

Affinia has ambitious growth plans over the next three years and the appointments of Steve and Marcus will help drive the execution of Affinia’s strategy.

TAL Group CEO Brett Clark said the appointment of Steve to the Affinia Board as Chair is an important appointment for Affinia and will bring enormous depth and experience of financial advice to the Affinia Board.

“We are very excited that Steve will Chair the Affinia Board. Steve has had an outstanding career in financial services and financial advice in particular. Steve will provide invaluable direction for Affinia, supporting our growth objectives and ensuring it operates efficiently and effectively, particularly during this transition period for the industry. We are committed to advisers and the important role high quality financial advice has in the community. Steve’s stewardship will ensure excellent leadership to the Affinia Board.

“It is crucial that our board has strong governance structures in place and I am confident Steve will provide unique expertise and insight for our Affinia business to help drive our growth ambition. I am absolutely delighted he has accepted the role of Chair”, Mr Clark said.

Of the appointment, Mr Helmich said: “I am very excited about the opportunity with Affinia and the TAL Group. It became clear to me early in the process that Brett and his team are determined to see Affinia become one of the leading licensees in the advice profession with a strong focus on supporting advisers to provide the best possible advice and service to their clients. This combination of putting clients first and being very adviser focussed had great appeal to me and made my decision to take on the role an easy one.”

Steve joins as Chair of Affinia after a long and very successful career at AMP.

Marcus will be Head of Affinia, effective 1 November. Marcus has extensive experience working with financial advisers. He has been an executive with TAL since 2012.

“Marcus is passionate about financial advice and has over 20 years’ experience and has held a number of senior management positions across life companies, reinsurers and dealer groups, including chief underwriter and director of life-risk. We welcome Marcus to the role,” Mr Clark said.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Craig Parker for his leadership of Affinia. Craig launched Affinia and his commitment and passion to the business has made it what it is today. We are currently working with Craig on new opportunities within TAL.”

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Craig Parker

National dealer group Affinia Financial Advisers recently presented its 2015 Adviser Awards.

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said the awards were a reflection of the talent within the Affinia network and the continued commitment to the professionalism of the industry.

“It is so important for us all to recognise the great work of advisers and the vital role they play in the lives of Australians. It is not only pleasing to recognise the high calibre of high quality strategic advice but to witness the comradery of the group in celebrating successes.

“As an industry, we must continue to acknowledge the great work that advisers do and through this, always seek to lift the bar. This profession can truly change lives and it’s up to us to challenge the norm and continue to improve.

“Affinia is proud to recognise the winners this year and indeed, the professionals who make up the Affinia family of over 100 practitioners,” Mr Parker said.

• The Adviser of the Year – Lachlan Baker, Franc Marc Sterling
• The Practice of the Year – Peter Blassis, Langley Securities
• The Emerging Gun of the Year Award – Jodie Douglas, Mad about Life
• The Chairman’s Award – Sacha Burchgart, Specialised Advice

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Craig Parker

National risk-focused dealer group Affinia Financial Advisers has developed a new tool to help advisers deliver strategic life insurance advice that meets the highest standards of ‘best interests’.

The Strategic Advice Cashflow Tool, encompassing a needs analysis and cashflow calculator, is being rolled out across the group as a central part of Affinia’s risk management framework, enabling advisers to comprehensively meet all of the elements of strategic life insurance advice .

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said: “The tool facilitates meaningful conversations between advisers and clients so that the service provided is built around high quality, valuable advice and risk management strategies, not products.

“This is about moving the conversation with clients away from insurance products and towards fully understanding client needs, and developing strategies and delivering solutions to meet those needs, and then reviewing them regularly.”

One of the key callouts from ASIC’s 2014 Review of Life Insurance Advice last year was the lack of an industry-accepted definition of ‘Strategic Life Insurance Advice’, though the report itself provided a brief description as well as a checklist.

Affinia believes strategic life insurance advice has a direct correlation to the globally accepted definition of ‘Risk Management’ as classified by ISO 31000.

This states, ‘Risk Management is the coordinated activities to direct and control outcomes with regard to risk. At its most effective, Risk management is fully integrated into the planning and management of an organisation across all levels.’

“Affinia has developed a risk management framework that defines and unpacks what strategic life insurance advice is,” Craig said. “Risk advice practices need to be built on the foundations of providing strategic advice, and our new framework, including the tool, provides the system to do that.”

The key elements of Affinia’s framework are:

• A diagnostic tool
• Risk identification
• Exposure analysis
• Strategy formulation
• Implementation, and
• Regular and ongoing audits and reviews.

Craig said that for risk professionals, the framework is applied under Affinia’s four pillars of risk advice which target client discussions around:

1. Cash flow
2. Risk
3. Superannuation, and
4. Estate planning.

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Craig Parker

National dealer group Affinia Financial Advisers has developed two client-facing videos to assist advisers to better engage with their clients and promote their value as a risk professional.

The first video discusses the importance of disclosure and the impacts of non-disclosure, while the second explains the role advisers’ play after an insurance policy has been put in place.

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said: “Advisers are looking for simple yet engaging ways of promoting the value of advice, particularly when it comes to financial protection.

“Our videos Supporting you at claim time and Your duty of disclosure help advisers continue the conversation with their clients, and crucially, help them to understand the vital role an adviser plays at claim time.

“We developed the disclosure video first and had very positive feedback from our advisers, so more recently created the claim time video which highlights what a client should do once their policy is in place, and who they should contact if they think they have a claim – their adviser.

“We’re producing several more videos in the series this year based on topics that our advisers have asked for.”

The videos follow the development of a new online tool that enables advisers to quickly and easily create their own personalised marketing collateral around claims payments.

“We are continuing to develop client engagement tools to help demonstrate the value of advice and the benefits of risk insurance,” Craig said.

“There has been negative sentiment around the industry lately but the reality is that this is overshadowing how advisers create exceptional value for Australians. We need to do a better job of sharing the good news stories and these videos help advisers do that.”

Affinia is helping to redress this imbalance through:

• More new client-facing videos
• The online claims poster tool which helps advisers to create personalised marketing material
• Thought leadership program and industry insights blog
• An ideas hub to collaborate and share knowledge amongst advisers

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Craig Parker

National dealer group Affinia Financial Advisers has developed a new online tool that enables advisers to quickly and easily create their own personalised marketing collateral.

The tool, which allows advisers to use their own branding and contact details, gives advisers the opportunity to illustrate their own claims data and stories, or industry data and stories, in a simple flyer format.

It was created to help Affinia advisers promote and demonstrate the important role they play in supporting their clients during claim time.

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said:  “We developed the online claims poster tool to meet this need but importantly to help advisers better engage with clients around risk insurance.

“In speaking with our network, it was clear that they needed tools to help demonstrate the value of what they do and explain the benefits of risk insurance to their clients. They want simply illustrated, easy-to-understand information that their clients can relate to, and they want to be able to use their own branding.”

Craig said that at a time when the industry has been coming under increasing scrutiny, this initiative enables advisers to share good news stories from their practices and to demonstrate the tangible benefits of protection.

“As risk professionals we have so much to be proud of, and we help so many people and their families. All advisers have good new stories that highlight the value of their role and the cover they can provide, and we should be shouting about it from the roof tops.”

Some product manufacturers are known to provide their claims statistics for advisers to use but those numbers were often too big for clients to identify with nor did they showcase the adviser’s own figures, case studies and branding.

The new online tool can be used to create different posters for different client types, such as Generation Y or Baby Boomers as well as focusing on different insurance types like critical illness.

The tool is the latest initiative from Affinia to help its network evolve in the changing landscape. It comes on top of Affinia’s:

• Risk Academy training and development program
• Integrated Xffinia backend system
• Thought leadership program and industry insights blog
• An ideas hub to collaborate and share knowledge amongst advisers
• Business development and practitioner services by specialist business consultants.

“Sometimes it is the simple things that can really make a big difference in client engagement,” Craig said. “While the new online claims tool has been some time in development, it produces a simple yet powerful illustration of the value of risk advice.”

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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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Jonathon Nguyen has joined the team as Affinia’s Regional Manager, Vic, Tas, SA, WA. Jonathon was previously state manager, WA, for Millennium3. He started with Affinia on 14 January. 

Peter Nielsen started with Affinia as Regional Manager, NSW and ACT, on 30 January. He was previously Regional Manager, NSW and Qld, for Professional Investment Services.  

Completing the line-up, Paul Gaffney joins Affinia on 4 February as Regional Manager, Qld and NT. Paul was previously State Manager Dealer Groups, Qld, for BT. 

All three have been hired to drive the ongoing development of Affinia’s practices nationwide, and to recruit new advisers to the Affinia group. 

They will report to Craig Parker, Head of Affinia. 

“I’m really excited to have been able to recruit three such respected faces in our industry to the Affinia team,” said Parker. 

“Jonathon, Peter and Paul are all hugely experienced and have a great mix of skill sets across practice development and recruitment. But most importantly, they’re passionate about the benefit risk insurance brings to the community, which is what Affinia is all about.” 

Parker added that Affinia now has dedicated representation across all states and territories. 

“Affinia has big plans for 2013 and beyond. We want to be the number one choice for advisers specialising in risk insurance, and are already seeing a lot of interest from the market. 

”Having our regional managers in place will enable us to accelerate our growth in 2013.”

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