Lonsec Chairman Mark Spiers said, “Mike’s unique blend of leading teams to develop and implement client-oriented growth and service initiatives along with his strong industry relationships and knowledge were exactly the leadership attributes that we were seeking.”

“By continuing to stay close to our clients Lonsec has enjoyed significant growth across all its business units and I am excited to be able to work with the great team at Lonsec to continue to build on this,” said Mike.

Mike was most recently the CEO of Xplore Wealth, an ASX listed company specialising in providing managed account investment solutions to financial advisers. Xplore Wealth was successfully acquired by Hub24 via a Scheme of Arrangement, completed 2nd March 2021.

Prior to this, Mike had a long and successful career in the Westpac/BT Group, where he held senior executive roles with Westpac’s Retail & Business Banking, and was State General Manager of Queensland before leading the Advice business at BT.

The post Lonsec appoints new CEO appeared first on AdviserVoice.

During the past 3 years Charlie has worked tirelessly to reshape and strengthen the business lines and expand Lonsec Research, SuperRatings and Lonsec Investment Solutions. This period has seen significant uplift in capabilities across all business units and the Board is committed to seeing the business build upon this solid foundation.

The Board of Lonsec sincerely thanks Charlie for those efforts.

Charlie believes that the time is now right for him to exit the business and pursue his other interests and to enable a new CEO to come on board to lead and drive the next phase of Lonsec’s growth plans.

There will be a smooth transition to a new CEO, with Charlie continuing in the role through to 30 June this year. The Board has commenced a search for a new CEO.

Lonsec is also announcing that Mark Spiers has been appointed Chairman of the Board.

The post Lonsec appoints Chair and CEO steps down appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Mark Spiers

Consumers are taking charge of their financial futures, taking up professional financial advice and giving honest feedback on their financial advisers so more Australians can benefit from the advice experience.

This is the response customers are providing on Adviser View, a website for consumers recently launched by BT Financial Group (BTFG) designed to improve the transparency of financial advice by giving consumers the power to search and compare financial advisers.

“Adviser View lifts the lid on what our customers think of their financial advice experience,” says Mark Spiers, General Manager of Advice, BTFG. “It provides them with a forum to give honest feedback on their adviser, the value of their advice, as well as information on their adviser’s education and professional backgrounds.”

Adviser View was developed in recognition that Australian consumers want greater transparency and more control of their financial future. Since its launch in October, Adviser View has had more than 32,700 (unique visits) Australians visiting the site, over 21,150 conducting searches for an adviser and over 800 comments.

“The message we are hearing from consumers is that getting financial advice feels good and it is worthwhile, terrific recognition of what the Australian financial advice industry can be,” says Mr Spiers.

Other consumer insights from Adviser View include*:

• Baby boomers dominate those seeking financial advice; 9% of users aged between 35-44years; 17% aged between 45-54 years; 34% aged between 55-64 years; and 27% aged 65+ years. Consumers start to become interested in financial advice once they hit their mid-forties.
• Male baby boomers more than double the number of women baby boomers seeking advice. Of the 34% of customers aged between 55-64 years, 10% are female and 23% are male. This gap narrows sharply as men and women move into retirement age.
• Consumers’ preference is to search by location, so accessibility to an adviser is a key issue with word of mouth the second way most people source an adviser.
• Speciality searches are used far less, an indication that consumers don’t have a good understanding of the range of areas where financial advisers can assist.For media enquiries contact

The new register was launched in conjunction with BTFG’s ‘Advice Commitment’, a public document outlining the service standards and commitments to customers of advice. Further detail on the educational and ethical standards for advisers going forward was also released.

“We were confident that giving Australian consumers the power to search and compare financial advisers and to read honest and untouched feedback from other consumers is a great step towards building more trust in our industry,” says Mr Spiers.

“Ensuring Australians can access financial advice how and when they want to, via sites such as Adviser View, means more Australians will have the opportunity to prepare for their futures and have better financial outcomes as a result.”

————–
* Statistics are based on the first 500 Adviser View customers as at 2 December 2014.

The post Consumers get connected with Advice appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Stella Group to help women aspire to work as financial planners.

BT Financial Group has launched a new network to help more women aspire to work as financial planners.

The Stella Network will be supported by networking opportunities, events and workshops and will provide greater insight into what it’s like to work in the financial planning industry.

BT Financial Group is the wealth management arm of the Westpac Group and oversees the financial planning businesses of Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne, Bank SA, Securitor, Licensee Select, BT Select and Magnitude.

It has a goal of doubling the number of females in its bank-aligned financial planning businesses by 2015.

Women are currently under-represented in the financial planning industry – accounting for fewer than 20% of the 16,500 financial planners in Australia.

BT Financial Group General Manager of Advice, Mark Spiers, says over the coming years Australia will see dramatic change to the face of financial planning including how Australian’s access advice and what advice they need.

“Australians need more financial advice than ever before and more planners to meet this demand. The industry needs to respond to this through more workplace flexibility, improved technology and increased professionalism to ensure we meet the financial needs of more Australians.

“Together, we need to strengthen the understanding of financial planning as a career and work to develop the employment support that is right for women.

“By better reflecting the broader diversity of the community, we hope to establish more rewarding relationships between financial planners and Australians.”

The post Stella network to help change the face of advice appeared first on AdviserVoice.

FSC Annual Conference begins July 31 in Brisbane.

The Advice stream at this year’s FSC Annual Conference in Brisbane is stacking up as one of the strongest ever with as speaking lineup including industry experts and academics.

The Financial Services Council’s Senior Policy Manager Advice Cecilia Storniolo said the program covered considerable ground from a discussion on the emerging competition in the advice industry to overviews of emerging world first research into the value of advice being conducted by Australian Universities.

Full detail of the Advice sessions are as follows:

Advice – Clash of the Civilisations – the emerging competition in the advice industry

Paul Barrett, Managing Director, Global Advice and Distribution – ANZ Wealth

Rod Bristow, CEO – Infocus

Bill Danaher, CEO, Industry Funds Services

For all the pervasive changes created by FoFA and MySuper emerges a new world order in advice. Has competition changed? What are the new advice models? Has FoFA created a level playing field for advice? What is the new world advice order?

Advice – Value of advice: Does the consumer value advice?

Professor Natalie Gallery, School of Accountancy – Queensland University of Technology

Professor David Michayluk, University of Technology, Sydney

Mark Spiers, General Manager Advice – BT Financial Group

In 2011/2012 Queensland University of Technology# and a consortium of universities led by Adelaide University were successfully awarded government funding to progress two world leading and distinct research projects into the Value of Advice in partnership with the FSC. What are the two projects researching? What stages are these projects at? How can the industry help? What are the results saying about the value of advice?

Advice – Are we there yet?

David Lane, CEO – Count Financial Limited

Michael Vrisakis, Partner – Herbert Smith Freehills

John de Zwart, Managing Director – Centrepoint Alliance

Geoff Lloyd, CEO and Managing Director – Perpetual

Jeroen Buwalda – Partner, Ernest and Young

A Q&A session – The Advice industry has been under significant reform and other significant changes including FoFA, TASA, Competency changes, APES230, Codes of Conduct – which largely culminated in 2013. What are the priority issues to be resolved by government or industry response ?  What are the practical implementation challenges and opportunities afforded by the changing landscape of advice?

The conference runs from July 31 to August 2 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The post Great program for advisers at FSC Annual Conference appeared first on AdviserVoice.