Westpac steps up education campaign
Westpac Financial Services has completed the rollout of electronic education tools for its 550 financial planers.
The Concept Illustrator tools are designed to give advisers the ability to explain financial planning concepts to their clients in simple English. It uses a combination of multi-media and Internet technologies to explain more than 30 different investment, superannuation, insurance and retirement income themes.
Themes include the benefits of gearing and whether the superannuation guarantee is enough to fund retirement.
The software is installed on an adviser's lap top or downloaded from a CD-Rom.
The individual Concept Illustrators can then used for face to face meetings or can be printed out for clients to take home.
Head of business development, Paul van Rooyen, says the Concept Illustrators are a key element in the positioning of Westpac's advisory team.
"We are trying to position the advisers as financial counsellors in their client's eyes," he says.
Van Rooyen says in the industry's early days, there were two types of financial planners: "junk food advisers who flogged products and technical advisers who couldn't communicate". He says the next phase was the push towards becoming the "trusted adviser".
"The counsellor is the trusted adviser who also educates her or his clients," van Rooyen says.
"I really think the cornerstone of financial advice today is education."
The Concept Illustrators also allows Westpac to give the same message to all its customers which can ensure its compliance standards are maintained.
On top of the Concept Illustrators, Westpac has also armed its business development managers (BDMs) with an electronic presentation tool called Mprez.
Mprez is also a multi-media and Internet based which is designed to help BDMs understand how to use the Concept Illustrator tools.
It can also be used for presentations such as client seminars or corporate superannuation presentations using its video and audio capabilities.
Van Rooyen says that the use of the Mprez software has increased the proportion of people who seek the services of a Westpac financial adviser after going to a presentation.
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