Financial planning enters golden age

Consumer demand for quality financial advice will outstrip supply within five years, according to Zurich national manager, business development, Bob Ossey.

Speaking at a seminar for Garrisons advisers, Ossey said if financial advisers are prepared to correctly position their businesses now, they will enter a "golden age" in financial advising.

"We are about to see a metamorphosis of what the community wants from a financial adviser," Ossey said. "And the quantity and type of advisers consumers want won't necessarily be available."

But Ossey warned that while consumers are looking for advisers who will help them through their entire financial life, they won't care what profession the adviser comes from.

"The customer will put the adviser in the centre of their financial universe," he said. "And the customer doesn't really care who you are - whether you are an accountant, a stockbroker, a life agent or a financial planner. "

Ossey said that the advisers who win the client will be those professionals who can help people with every facet of their financial life. The professional firm will facilitate the entire advice process but may outsource many of their technical or specialist services.

And while e-commerce is making it easier and easier for people to do their own financial planning and investing, Ossey said the do-it-yourself market is not an adviser's future target market.

"You don't want to do business with these people," he said. "If you are basing your business on the completion of transactions and the provision of information then e-commerce is a big threat to your value proposition. Branson is not here just to fly planes. Telstra is not just a phone company. Companies like Virgin and Telstra have the ability to mine their databases looking for transaction based DIY investors. But providing information and access is one thing, synthesising that information is another."

Ossey said Virgin and Telstra won't be able to offer the synthesised information that is real financial advice and it will be the adviser who really understands the client who wins the business.

"Each adviser's market will be much narrower, much more specific, so closely and clearly defined that advisers will know absolutely everything about them," he said. "To service their target market, advisers will need a clear purpose to their business and a definitive value proposition that will make their clients perceive long term value in the relationship."

And if advisers are prepared to make a positional change in the way they present advice to their clients, Ossey believes they will reap unprecedented rewards.

"Planners need to be high touch, high value. They need to offer their clients a relationship based upon a "total solution" to their needs. The financial advisers who build this into their value proposition will end up with very valuable businesses dealing with clients that truly appreciate their services."