Softly, softly: the way forward for advisers

Vital “soft” skilling of advisers to help them deal with sensitive matters is often overlooked due to industry focus on compliance, a leading financial services executive has claimed.

ZurichAustralia(Zurich) head of life risk Andrew McKee said although the development of such skills was crucial to sustaining the businesses of advisers, the industry had been somewhat distracted.

“Over the last few years the industry has been very compliance focused and, as a result, a lot of training of advisers focused around obtaining compliance skills rather than communication and soft skills,” he said.

According to McKee, adviser qualifications such as PS 146 help advisers only with one aspect of financial advice delivery.

“What [those qualifications] do is make sure advisers offer sound advice,” he said.

“But there are two parts to advice: making sure advisers give sound advice, and convincing clients of the importance of that advice.”

By helping them better understand the sensitive scenarios clients often face, soft skills helped advisers articulate to clients the importance of the advice being provided, McKee said.

To help spread the gospel of soft skilling, Zurich is today commencing its annual national risk symposium, featuring sessions on improving advisers’ communication and interpersonal skills when clients are in psychological distress, tragedy or pain.

By addressing aspects of perception, reality and change, the sessions aim to help advisers realise that their professional role at times goes beyond traditional financial advice.

“The symposium is about trying to give advisers a deeper understanding of what their clients might experience,” McKee said.

“Hopefully we can provide advisers with stories and insights on how clients experience traumatic events that they can take back and use when in communication with their clients.

The symposium starts today in Perth and will also travel to Adelaide, Sydney, and Brisbane, and Melbourne.