Planners should be benchmarked to market
The Federal Government's move to establish an independent standards body as part of its legislation to mandate professional standards for financial advisers should go further and set benchmarks on how financial planners should perform.
Such was the opinion of Wizard Home Loans co-founder and Echofied founder, Paul Ryan, who said it was necessary to track how the market was performing and cross check that benchmark to how individual planners had performed.
"You can have all the qualifications in the world, but it doesn't necessarily mean an individual is competent in their day-to-day duties and how they perform for their clients," Ryan said.
Ryan added planners should exercise transparency with answering clients' questions that would allow clients to get to know them, how they communicated and the types of advice they provided.
"What is also very important is that the financial planners employed by the banks should have the same legislated requirements as the independent financial planners operating their own businesses," Ryan said.
"This isn't the case between mortgage brokers and bank managers."
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
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