Planners among Australia's most wanted

There’s a big supply and demand problem in financial planning, according to one industry figure.

There’s a big supply and demand problem in financial planning, according to one industry figure.

Perpetual Investment’s general manager of retail Gerard Doherty says financial planning groups, in an effort to keep up with an increasing demand for financial advice in the marketplace, are expanding at rapid rates.

In particular, the banks have been “quite aggressive” in expanding their planner numbers, as are other large dealerships, he says.

Despite recent market volatility, Australians are still investing in growth products. “There’s a definite switch to longer term investment strategies in the market and no real holding back of investments into growth assets. This is a good sign,” Doherty says.

As such, Doherty believes planners are not really concerned about the growth of direct and alternative distribution channels. “Financial planners were paranoid a couple of years ago about fund managers going direct. Now they’re more con-cerned with how to deal with the number of clients they’ve got. It’s rare to find a financial planner who is worried about this sort of threat to their businesses,” he says.

Planners are more concerned with constant legislative changes and are busy trying to educate themselves, not only about increasing stringent compliance require-ments but also about the new tax laws coming into effect next July. However, Do-herty says these regulatory changes may provide planners with more business. “Changes to the tax system may prove a great advantage for planners,” he says.