Current advice process not an incentive
Financial advice should start by piece advice and develop into full advice as the current framework does not incentivise people to seek advice, according to Investment Trends.
Speaking at the SMSF Conference on the Gold Coast, Investment Trends chief executive, Michael Blomfield, said Australians wanted piece-by-piece advice and the current process of meeting an adviser was inefficient and clients often did not know how much advice would cost even after the second or third meeting with the adviser.
Self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) members, he said, did not have a problem paying for products or services but they did not take advice until it was needed and this called for the need for single piece of advice.
“Then they’ll come again for a piece of advice and over time they can get full advice,” he said.
Blomfield noted that 10.4 million Australians had unmet advice needs and 43% of pre-retirees did not believe the products they needed for retirement were available in the marketplace. He said the constant change of regulation did not help this situation.
“The micro and macro adjustments have to stop. When you talk to an SMSF trustee they say the hardest thing to do is to keep track of regulation,” he said.
“Unless the Retirement Income Review comes to a conclusion, makes a decision, and then leaves it, then in 10 years everything will be the same with everybody left confused and underserviced.”
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