Madison Financial Group is rolling out a compliance framework that uses estate planning as a context for the best interests duty.
Madison head of compliance Cheyenne Walker is working closely with business and estate lawyer Michael Perkins, who teaches an undergraduate estate planning course at the University of Technology, Sydney.
According to Perkins, the first value a planner can deliver a client is context about their situation – and he says Walker is the first compliance manager who has "got it".
"We need to be putting estate situation reviews into the service mix … We need to be engaging with the values of the client, not just the money of the client," said Perkins.
The discipline of estate planning fits in well with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's language around holistic advice, according to Walker.
"It's not only understanding the client, but understanding the client's family and their needs and beneficiaries," said Walker.
However, Walker believes the financial planning industry needs to come up with a "smarter" term than estate planning.
"When you say 'estate planning' to an adviser they think about wills and powers of attorney. Then they think 'I can't do that because I'm not a lawyer'," Walker said.
"But it's just a small component, and the adviser is certainly positioned best to give those instructions on the behalf of the client to the lawyer," she said.
Walker sees financial planners as the "hub adviser" controlling the flow of information to other professionals in order to meet the client's specific needs – "to their accountant, to their lawyer, even general insurance".
