Andrew Alcock

Collaborative action to drive transformation must be taken to enable financial advice to be more cost-effective and accessible, not only to help more Australians meet their individual financial goals but also provide broader benefits for the community as a whole.

In a documentary created by HUB24 and XY Adviser, industry leaders and advisers have called for affirmative action to ensure more Australians can access professional financial advice.

According to HUB24’s CEO, Andrew Alcock, the advice profession and industry providers have an obligation to work together to ensure financial advice is accessible for more Australians.

“Currently, we have a situation where a small percentage of Australians seek holistic advice from a regulated financial adviser, and it’s becoming harder and more expensive to access that service. In effect, we are creating a have and have-not situation.”

The documentary features industry leaders and advisers including Financial Services Council CEO Blake Briggs, AZ NGA CEO Paul Barrett, Investment Trends CEO Sarah Brennan, Money Mentor’s Adele Martin and Caboodle Financial Services Principal Peita Diamantidis.

Participants identified cost and the decreasing number of financial advisers as significant challenges for Australians in getting advice – factors which have been exacerbated by the complex regulatory environment and historical lack of investment in developing innovative technology solutions.

According to Mr Barrett, advisers and clients are bearing the brunt of complex regulatory obligations. “If you put yourself in the shoes of an adviser today, and the things they have to do before they can have a meaningful discussion about their client’s scenario and start helping them, there’s too much of a regulatory burden.”

The documentary participants collectively agreed both advisers and consumers will pay the price if we are not able to overcome these challenges as Australians will be more reliant on the government for financial support and unable to navigate the complexity of their finances.

“Without good financial advice, Australians miss out on the opportunity to plan for tomorrow, to have peace of mind, financial security and financial freedom,” said Mr Alcock.  “We really need to consider, with the complexity of the environment we are in and all of the regulations and compliance, are we actually preparing Australians for the future?”

The documentary also features comments by CoreData Global CEO Andrew Inwood, My Millennial Money podcast creator Glen James, FPA CEO Sarah Abood, AFR Wealth Editor Aleks Vickovich and Diverger General Manager of Operations and Technology, Sonya Choi La Rosa.  It highlights how financial education, reduced regulatory complexity and investment in developing integrated technology solutions for licensees and advisers can play a role in enabling the delivery of cost-effective financial advice.

“There is an amazing opportunity to build the foundations of the future, and leverage data and technology to reduce friction for licensees, advisers and customers to empower better financial futures for more Australians,” said Mr Alcock.

Participants agreed the way forward was to work together and alongside government and regulators, to break down existing barriers to advice and build a sustainable advice profession which will enable more Australians to benefit from financial advice.

Watch the documentary. 

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Peita Diamantidis, 2016 FEIA Award winner.

TAL, Australia’s leading life insurance specialist, and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has announced the finalists for the Female Excellence in Advice (FEIA) Award. The finalists are in the running to receive a $15,000 tailored education package to further their professional development.

A joint initiative by TAL and the AFA, the FEIA Award celebrates women in financial advice who are making a significant contribution to their profession, their community and their clients.

The FEIA Award 2017 finalists are:

• Christina Cabrera, Founder, Wisdom of Wealth for Women
• Lea Schodel, Founder, Wellthy
• Nicole Heales, Principal Adviser & Broker, Nicole Heales Financial
• Sacha Burchgart, Founder/Managing Director, Burcheart
• Tracey Sofra, Principal Financial Planner, Sofcorp Financial Services

TAL General Manager, Retail Distribution, Niall McConville, congratulated the five finalists and applauded their efforts to encourage more women to become financial advisers.

“In addition to being outstanding financial advisers and astute business women, this year’s FEIA finalists are giving back so much to their communities by empowering women to take control of their financial futures and mentoring women who have an interest in the advice profession.

“More women are entering the advice profession in Australia and the industry is only getting better for it,” he said.

AFA CEO, Phil Kewin, said, “The FEIA Award has come a long way since inception and each year it is getting more difficult for the judging panel to narrow down the finalists. We have some exceptional talent in our industry and all nominees should be very proud of their achievements.

“We encourage all nominees who didn’t make the finals to take part again in 2018, and we thank all of those involved in supporting the FEIA Award, which has been promoting positive change in the financial advice profession for the past six years.”

The finalists will present to a judging panel on September 20 about their business achievements, community involvement and views on mentoring, education, gender diversity and future vision.

The winner of the FEIA Award will be announced at the AFA National Adviser Conference on October 11-13.

For more information on the Award, visit: http://www.afafemaleadvice.com/

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Richard Dunkerley

Financial advisers have an opportunity to elevate their services into that of ‘financial coach,’ making themselves as relevant to their clients as other lifestyle professionals, according to a new whitepaper by Zurich Life & Investments.

BusinessFIT: Navigating toward the advice practice of tomorrow, launched yesterday, is based on findings of a workshop which included some of the industry’s most progressive and successful thought-leaders. It considers the fundamental characteristics of prosperous advice practices over the medium-long term, to 2020 and 2025. This is in the face of changing consumer demographics and demands, increasing industry regulation and advancing technologies.

The four main recommendations are:

1. Advisers need to consider how to shift their service from one of ‘technical specialist’ to one of financial lifestyle coach, relating money and wealth goals to their clients’ lifestyle aspirations, objectives and passions. This becomes particularly important as the values of target audiences change, appreciating experiences as well as things, for example. This trend is becoming more common in Millennials who are being forced to rethink home-ownership as the great Australian dream, and Baby-Boomers who are looking to enjoy their retirement with greater health, hobbies and travel.
2. Advisers need powerful back office technologies to support increasing regulatory demands. Ever-increasing regulatory requirements and greater demands for transparency means that successful advice practices will have no choice but to invest in technologies that can automate reporting. Those practices can install the right technologies – within their businesses and through their dealer groups – to efficiently support these administrative requirements, will also be able to dedicate more focus to client consultations and outcomes.
3. Clients will still demand the ‘human touch,’ but emerging automated technologies can play an important technical role. Artificial intelligence and robo-advice, amongst other emerging technologies, may be able to model portfolios much more quickly than an individual financial adviser, and so they have the potential to play an important role. This will not, however, supersede the human relationship between financial coach and client – the building of trust and relationship, emotional intelligence and the translation of lifestyle aspirations into monetary and wealth goals.
4. Consider scalable digital solutions to keep in touch with ‘roaming’ clients, facilitating ongoing communication from wherever they are located. Beyond the ‘human touch’ of a face-to-face appointment, this involves having tools that clients can engage with whilst they are on the go. This might include an app that provides real-time updates on their portfolios, but also let’s them scenario plan, seeing the potential impact should they save or invest more money each month, or change their investment ratios or strategy. By private-labelling basic financial apps, advisers can give clients the opportunity to be as hands-on or hands-off with their money as they please, while still having the trust and personal guidance of a professional financial lifestyle coach to build a wealth strategy in line with their life aspirations.

Zurich’s BusinessFIT whitepaper was developed with the input of workshop participants including Jessica Brady from BT Financial Group, David Clark from Koda Capital, Tim Deamer from Crosbie Wealth, Peita Diamantidis from Caboodle Financial Services, Matt Heine from NetWealth, and Adrian Patty from AP Financial Services, along with futurist Anders Sörman-Nilsson.

In summing up one of the main recommendations, Peita Diamantidis, said, “Our industry can be under a misnomer that money is the point for clients, when it’s not; lifestyle is. There is a great opportunity to change the way we’re approaching financial planning to relate it in terms of dreams, hopes, motivation, inspiration.”

Tim Deamer, Director, Crosbie Wealth Management said, “Clients want to be excited about their financial futures. The sale of a product is irrelevant to them. Having tools that they can engage with are important, so when they interact with their adviser, they feel as though they are being supported on their journey.”

This research is the latest in a series sponsored by Zurich which is dedicated to supporting the continued success of the financial advice industry in Australia.

Richard Dunkerley, Head of Marketing and Communications at Zurich Life & Investments, said, “In the face of increasing regulation and ongoing pressure on the advice industry, we wanted to bring together some of the industry’s best minds to consider what opportunities there were for advisers servicing some clients through their retirement, but also engaging the next generation – the lucrative but relatively un-tapped Millennial market.

“What became clear – in considering changing lifestyles and demographics – was that people still value money and wealth, but as an enabler to reaching other goals, and this provides an opportunity for advisers. The role of technology is also crucial – both for reducing the administrative burden of reporting and regulation, but also to service clients in between appointments, and from wherever they may be based.

“Harnessing evolving technology, and speaking to clients in values-based terms, offer exciting opportunity, according to our think tank of thought-leaders,” he said.

Download a full copy of the research – BusinessFIT: Navigating toward the advice practice of tomorrow

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Peita Diamantidis

TAL is calling for nominations and applications for the Female Excellence in Advice (FEIA) Award, a joint initiative by the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and TAL. The award celebrates women in financial advice who are making a significant contribution to their profession, their community and their clients.

Nominations and applications for the award close on 28 July. Financial advisers can nominate themselves, or be nominated by peers or clients. The winner of the award will receive a $15,000 TAL education package, which will be tailored to the winner’s requirements in furthering their professional development.

Niall McConville, General Manager, Retail Distribution at TAL said, “It’s hard to believe that in 2017, women only make up around 20% of Australian financial advisers. Through this award, TAL and the AFA want to highlight the benefits that diversity brings to the advice profession and encourage more women to enter the industry.

“We believe the more women we can encourage to become financial advisers, the greater impact we will have empowering women to take control of their financial destiny and live a life filled with choices, options and freedoms.

“TAL is hosting a webinar next week where advisers can hear insights from previous FEIA award finalists and receive guidance on how to build their award application.”

Registration to the webinar is free. Advisers will hear from 2016 FEIA Award winner, Peita Diamantidis, and finalists, Lea Schodel, Financial Adviser at MHP Private Wealth, and Amanda Cassar, Director and Financial Adviser at Wealth Planning Partners.

Commenting on her award win last year, Ms Diamantidis said, “Winning the award has provided me with an incredible opportunity to widen the reach of our financial literacy efforts, and consequently inspire more women to become financial advisers themselves.

“I would encourage all female financial advisers to consider applying for the FEIA award, which will enable all of us to work towards changing the futures of both our industry and our clients. Until there are more female advisers, I think we’ll struggle to engage with the Australian public as a whole.”

The FEIA Award winner will be announced at the AFA National Conference on October 13.

More information on the award and to nominate or apply for the award.

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AFA CEO, Brad Fox, said the ability of this Award to attract so many women of such high calibre is a great indication of the industry’s progress in generating positive change for the future.

“Female advisers play a vital role in our industry in providing Australians with better access and more choice over who they partner with on their financial journeys. As a result, the Australian advice industry continues to get better, enabling it to provide great advice to more Australians.”

The Award criteria include assessment of the candidates’ contributions to financial literacy in the community and/or campaigns targeted specifically at helping female clients take control of their financial lives.

TAL General Manager of Retail Distribution, Niall McConville said the Award continued to attract and showcase some of the extraordinary female talent in the industry.

“Fostering and recognising professional development is a cornerstone of TAL’s commitment to the industry to help advisers grow their businesses. We have really noticed over the course of the last few years the professional standard of the industry, and specifically the investment women are making in their careers continues to grow. This is good for our industry and the Australians we are here to help.

“Further, TAL has long supported gender equality and believes strongly in greater representation of women in financial services and the difference diversity can make to the financial outcomes of both men and women.”

The winner for the AFA Female Excellence in Advice Award will be announced at the AFA National Adviser Conference in Canberra from 5-7 October 2016.

FEIA Finalists (L to R): Susan Rallings, Lea Schodel, Amanda Cassar, Peita Diamantidis, Tricia Peters.

The Award -finalists are:

• Amanda Cassar: Director and Financial Adviser, Wealth Planning Partners
• Leo Schodel: Financial Adviser, MHP Private Wealth
• Patricia Peters: Director and Certified Financial Planner, Peters McKeown
• Peita Diamantidis: Co-Founder and Financial Adviser, Caboodle Financial Services
• Susan Rallings: Senior Vice President, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

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Peita Diamantidis

The kitchen and cooking skills of the country’s top business leaders will be put on show at the annual OzHarvest CEO CookOff in Sydney on 7 March.

Sydney-based financial planning firm Caboodle Financial Services’ co-founder, Peita Diamantidis, will be donning an apron and putting on oven mitts to team up with Australia’s top chefs to raise money for leading food rescue charity, OzHarvest.

In its fifth year, the event brings together CEOs and Managing Directors from some of Australia’s top companies from all industries. Business leaders will be challenged on their fundraising and culinary skills which will benefit some of the country’s most vulnerable community members, while at the same time raising awareness about the issues of food security, homelessness and food waste.

130 business leaders and 40 high profile chefs took part in last year’s CEO CookOff. Since the CEO CookOff began in 2012, it has raised more than $4 million for charity.

CEOs are teamed with acclaimed chefs including Matt Moran, Guillaume Brahimi and Frank Camorra to prepare a three course meal for approximately 1,300 Australian homeless and disadvantaged people.
According to Peita Diamantidis, author of Finance Action Hero: Basic Training and managing director of Caboodle Financial Services, financial advisers are in a unique position to help raise awareness of causes like OzHarvest as they link directly to day to day attitudes and behaviours of Australians when it comes to money.
“As part of my research into the Finance Action Hero book series, I discovered how much food each of us waste, and was initially focused on reducing the amount we throw away to save each of us money. However OzHarvest helped me realise I was thinking too small.” she said.

“What about all the food wasted by my favourite restaurants, and by all the major supermarket chains? That is what I love about OzHarvest and that is what drove me to participate in this year’s CEO Cookoff.”

CEOs, through their sponsors, generate much needed funds for OzHarvest to continue its mission to turn surplus food into hearty and healthy meals for vulnerable Australians. The organisation currently has 30 vans which deliver nutritious rescued food to more than 800 charities in Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle and Perth.

The 2016 CEO CookOff will be held in Sydney on Monday 7 March and OzHarvest CEO and Founder, Ronni Kahn, says she is hopeful that participants will top last year’s sterling fundraising effort.

“This event brings out the best in our business leaders who stand side by side with industry colleagues and competitors and some of the best chefs in the country, united in their efforts to really make a difference to the lives of not just their 1,300 hungry guests on the night of the CEO CookOff, but the thousands of people that OzHarvest helps every year,” Kahn said.

The opportunity to stand side by side with some of the CEOs of Australia’s largest institutions has also appealed to Peita’s competitive nature.

“Small business is a major driving force in the financial services industry, and I’d love to remind the big financial institutions of that by giving their CEOs a run for their money. I know that if financial advice practices came together behind a cause we would effect wonderful change.“

Donations can be made here. Details on the offer Peita is making to those that make signficant contributions can be found at www.bit.ly/caboodleozharvest

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Peita Diamantidis

Leading financial planning firm Caboodle Financial Services has launched the Caboodle Masters Network – an innovative and compelling succession solution designed to maximise the price principals can achieve for their business while removing the stress and uncertainty typically involved in a sales transaction.

The Caboodle Masters Network was developed by financial planner Peita Diamantidis and business coach Warwick Hearne in response to growing demand from advisers for a succession plan that recognises the full value of their practice; allows principals to continue writing new business or transition out at their own pace; and ensures clients receive ongoing service and advice.

By joining the Caboodle Masters Network, principals can avoid the pain and disruption often associated with the sale of a business while possibly doubling the price they would receive for their business if they were to sell in the current market, according to Hearne.

“For the majority of financial planners, succession is a major issue. Without a viable exit strategy, advisers, their families, and their clients are exposed,” he said.

“This much-needed solution enables advisers to plan and manage their succession. For principals who want to continue writing new business, it can deliver business freedom by assisting with the compliance and administration burden so they can spend more time in front of new clients or on personal pursuits, as they choose.”

With the Caboodle Masters Network, Caboodle Financial Services will acquire a practice’s book of business, assume responsibility for servicing clients and pay the principal 50 per cent of recurring revenue for a minimum of 10 years, effectively underwriting the portfolio value from the outset.

Advisers can continue winning new clients leveraging Caboodle’s infrastructure, technology, marketing automation and back-office support, or they can transition to retirement at a pace they choose.

Those who continue writing new business have an opportunity to significantly increase the value they receive for their practice by extending the 10 year remuneration period by the period for which they are actively writing new business. Financial arrangements and payments are adminstered by Suncorp-owned dealer group Guardian Advice, which licenses Caboodle Financial Services.

According to practice management expert Graham Peatey, who recently joined Caboodle Financial Services, the new Caboodle Masters Network offer is an Australian-first with the power to end the succession nightmare for many advisers.

“In the 20 years I’ve worked in financial services distribution, I’ve never seen a succession planning solution this compelling which is the main reason why I joined the Caboodle team,” Peatey said.

“It addresses the key challenges of succession because from the outset the adviser knows how and what they will be paid for their business. They also have the opportunity to positively impact the valuation.”

The Caboodle Masters Network complements the highly successful Caboodle Passive Client Offer, which was originally launched in 2008.

Under the Caboodle Passive Client Offer, Caboodle Financial Services will acquire a practice’s lower value passive clients and pay the principal 50 per cent of recurring revenue on that book of business for 10 years. Principals continue to service their active clients.

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Peita Diamantidis

A leading financial planning firm has joined the Australian government in the fight to boost the financial literacy of Australians, as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission prepares to release the government’s National Financial Literacy Strategy for 2014-17.

Sydney-based financial planning firm Caboodle Financial Services has developed a range of educational tools which will be launched on May 1 and features a new book called Finance Action Hero: Basic Training

The book forms part of the Zaptitude range of consumer products, which includes seminars and coaching clinics, smart phone apps, webcasts and a support group made up of financial planners, bloggers and ordinary people called the Zaptitude Tribe.

According to Peita Diamantidis, author of Finance Action Hero: Basic Training and managing director of Caboodle Financial Services, financial advisers are in a unique position to help raise the financial knowledge and skills of Australians, and positively influence their attitudes and behaviour when it comes to money.

“So many people we encounter as advisers work hard and earn good money yet they have nothing to show for it,” she said.

“They need to be compelled, prodded, zapped and stirred into action but the minute they decide to try and take control of their finances, they’re overwhelmed by all the information out there. They know they should do something but like a deer in headlights, they’re mesmerized by the oncoming catastrophe. They simply don’t know where to start.”

The Zaptitude range is one small part of the solution, Diamantidis said, urging other advisers to get involved with financial literacy initiatives including the national program, which is set to be unveiled imminently.

In 2013, ASIC undertook an extensive public consultation process to review the existing financial literacy strategy which was set in 2011. A new and updated strategy is currently in draft form and is expected to be released soon.

“Zaptitude is the ability or knack to sort out one’s money stuff and it is the cure for financial paralysis, which more than 50 per cent of Australian adults suffer from according to our proprietary research,” Diamantidis said.

The firm’s research also found two thirds of Australians don’t understand the messages being communicated by the financial services industry.

Diamantidis said her book was a training manual not another personal finance title focused on investing.

“Financial literacy and Zaptitude is about helping people get their financial house in order and meeting people where they are at,” she said. “We want to provide full encouragement and inspiration to people and keep pushing them along.”

Finance Action Hero will be available at selected retailers and online at Amazon, iTunes and www.zaptitude.me .

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