Demand for planners to work longer hours

financial-planning/

7 December 2017
| By Hope William-Smith |
image
image image
expand image

The contemporary customer expects new standards of service from financial planners and their staff, meaning common periods of office closer over Christmas or other holidays will likely become a thing of the past, said Mentor Education Group.

Mentor Education Group chair, Dr Jim Taggart said planners needed a work-life balance, but would also be expected to work to the needs of modern day clients with the career path now “not an undertaking for the feint-hearted”.

“The contemporary prerequisite of the customer service experience has created a threshold that demands the creation of new standards for any financial planning practice principal to adhere to in order to compete for the demanding and discerning consumer’s precious dollar,” he said.

“There is a 24/7 world and client death, injury, illness or unexpected financial calamity events don’t occur conveniently during office hours.”

Taggart stressed office closure over long holiday period which included Christmas were now also not suitable for competitive workers.

“Trust is built up over time and it occurs on each and every occurrence when a client calls the office to the P2P engagement with the planner of staff,” he said.

“It’s how a practice responds to…contingencies that differentiates the best from the ordinary.”

Mentor Education Group founder, Dr Mark Sinclair said being this responsive to clients’ needs was the norm for many professions these days, and not unique to financial planning or the financial services industry.

“Unforeseen emergencies that inevitably arise…can potentially damage the business brand and client relationship,” he said.

In a post future of financial advice (FOFA) era, Sinclair said expectations would continue to become more pronounced.

 

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

5 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

5 months 1 week ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

7 months 1 week ago

The FSCP has issued a written direction to an adviser who charged clients “extraordinary fees” for inappropriate and conflicted advice, as well as encouraged them to swit...

1 week 6 days ago

ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of an advice firm associated with Shield and First Guardian collapses, and permanently banned its responsible manager. ...

3 weeks 2 days ago

ASIC has confirmed the industry funding levy for the 2024–25 financial year, and how much licensees can expect to pay....

4 days 3 hours ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
2
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
95.46 3 y p.a(%)
5