Tim Browne

Dealer group Financial Wisdom has embarked on a comprehensive review of the licensee standards that govern the delivery of advice to its clients by its 460 advisers.

The review of the licensee standards or business rules, which is expected to be completed by September this year, has been driven by unprecedented demand for advice reviews from Financial Wisdom’s client base.

“We’re reviewing a large number of our standards in the interest of delivering advice to clients efficiently and cost effectively by adviser and paraplanners,” according to general manager Tim Browne.

Commonwealth-owned Financial Wisdom has so far released five licensee standards, including on the use of direct equities, and will deliver an additional 15 licensee standards over the coming months.

In a related project the group has identified and automated the 49 financial planning strategies most commonly recommended by advisers, including insurance, cash flow and retirement planning.

“We’re continuing to provide advice to clients on a comprehensive range of strategies, but we’ve opted to simplify the most common strategies recommended for the sake of efficiencies.”

In turn, this project has resulted in the simplification and standardisation of the use of Statements of Advice (SOA) and Records of Advice (ROA) by advisers, he said.

“It is now crystal clear in terms of the Corporations Act when our advisers should use an SOA, when an ROA is required and when file notes are sufficient to document advice to a client.”