Macquarie to be ‘debt coach’ for advisers

Australian consumers’ increasing appetite for debt has prompted investment banking giant Macquarie Bank to release a booklet to help financial planners enable their clients to utilise debt as a wealth creation tool.

“It’s an initiative where we’ve looked at our business model to determine how we can work with financial advisers on the ground to actually be their ‘debt coach’,” head of adviser sales Macquarie Mortgages Craig Parker said.

“It goes through six key strategies on what they should be looking at and how to implement debt strategies into their businesses,” he added.

The strategies include the consolidation of debt, the use of debt to invest, and the use of reverse mortgages.

Statistics provided by Macquarie show Australians currently have $119 billion in personal debt, have experienced an increase in household debt of 14 per cent over the past decade that now sits at $605 billion, and have $18 billion in outstanding margin loans.

“I suppose the implication for us is to ensure households out there should have some management practices in place to help cope with the potential rise in interest rates,” Macquarie senior economist Brian Redican said.

The initiative is also in response to a growing trend among financial advisers to provide their clients with debt management services.

“We’re starting to see a big interest in the debt management space and we want to take a leading position in the financial planner space in providing them with tools and strategies, as well as product solutions to allow them to go to their customers with impartial advice regarding debt solutions,” Macquarie Bank associate director and head of distribution and marketing, margin lending division, Steve Robertson said.

The bank has arranged a national roadshow over the coming week to launch the booklet that will include seminars where copies of the guide will be distributed to financial advisers.

After the launch, Macquarie will continue to work closely with advisers to offer them ongoing debt management support.

“We’ll have a team on the ground actually working with financial advisers, training them and educating them, to show them these are the sort of things they can bring into their businesses, and encourage them not to look at a mortgage or margin loan as a product, but as a solution to actually create wealth,” Parker said.