Do clients need to be re-educated?
The landscape of the financial services industry is changing, and advisers must act as mentors and re-educate their clients, Arnie Selvarajah, CEO, Bell Direct, has told Money Management and Super Review’s Future of Wealth Management conference.
Selvarajah said the level of trust in advisers in low, but there’s a clear opportunity to grow that trust over time if clients are educated.
“There’s been no change in financial literacy in the consumer market,” he said. “We haven’t educated our clients, they’re not thinking differently, they’re not learning what they need from us as an industry.”
Selvarajah said clients needed to be re-educated about the value being delivered to them, and given the market is heading into investment headwinds, advisers should not be solely concerned with performance.
As the industry faces such headwinds, the next generation of clients will need to respond accordingly through triaging clients, providing continuing customer service and both non-investment and investment advice.
The CEO said non-investment advice would prove just as important as investment advice and educating clients in budgeting and saving could actually add more long-term value.
Selvarajah said going forward, the winners would be advisers who sought to fully understand their clients’ financial and non-financial objectives, and who educated clients on cashflows and savings, risk and return, and staying on course.
Advisers needed to embrace technology, focus on where they could add value and outsource where they couldn’t.
“The days of one platform fits all is over – it’s about finding how you can add value and focusing on how you can give clients peace of mind,” he said.
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