Focus on clients, not fee structures
Financial planners need to focus more on their clients than the way they are remunerated, according to US-based planning specialist Bill Bachrach, who will be back in Australia in coming weeks talking to BT Financial Group planners.
Speaking to Money Management from the US, Bachrach said that while he understood the level of debate which had occurred in Australia around planner remuneration, the planners themselves needed to understand "that your clients don't live in your world" and don't necessarily worry about things such as the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) changes.
"What your clients care about is their financial security and the security of their families," he said. "That is what is important to them and that is something that has not changed."
Bachrach said that Australian advisers needed to take a similar view of vertical integration and, rather, consider what the client wants.
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