IOOF launches Advice Academy


IOOF has emerged as the latest major financial services house to launch an advice education offering.
The company announced this week it had created the IOOF Advice Academy to be led by industry expert, Dean Lombardo, who has been responsible for running a pilot program for the past 24 months within IOOF's Consultum advice business.
IOOF group general manager, Wealth Management, Renato Mota, described the initiative as an investment in improving the quality of advice in Australia.
"Placing the needs of investors at the heart of how we think about creating value for our advice partners is driving our investment in goals-based advice and complements IOOF's open architecture view of enabling quality advice," he said.
He said that the success of the pilot program run by Lombardo had given IOOF the confidence to invest in a form program which would be available to Australian advisers.
The intention was to develop the IOOF Advice Academy as the pre-eminent training and coaching resource for the financial planning industry.
Mota said it would support advice businesses by providing an end-to-end client engagement model delivering an effective front office and efficient back office.
The announcement said this enabled advisers to deliver consistent advice and education supporting the ongoing behaviors required to increase the client's probability to succeed.
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