Prioritisation key for advisers and clients
Financial advisers advising self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) and other clients may not be able to cover all advice areas they desire but they should identify key areas and distil the information in a way that is accessible to the client.
That was the recommendation of The SMSF Academy managing director, Aaron Dunn, who told the 2017 SMSF Association Conference in Melbourne on Wednesday that having advice gaps would be an inevitable function of a lack of time, which was why it was vital for advisers to define what their value and service proposition would look like going forward.
"In reality the conversations that we're having with our client today aren't necessarily covering all the things that we might like because who's not busy?" he said.
"Are we covering off on all the relevant areas that we really want to ensure that our clients hand on heart we're acting in their best interests around?"
The comments came amidst research cited by Dunn conducted by the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and the SMSF Association, which showed 60 per cent of respondents considered themselves unadvised.
"When you think about the backdrop of the reforms that are ahead 60 per cent of those people will be either relying on public information so that they will get through media or fake news," Dunn said.
"But it provides an opportunity for you to think about how do we get the relevant information to them in a timely fashion to be able to not only service their own clients but pick up new clients along the way as well."
Clients were seeking advice on retirement planning and managing retirement as well as specific topics such as the transfer balance cap amidst the superannuation reforms.
Therefore advisers needed to embed six steps to cater to client adviser needs: educate and guide clients on super reforms and its implications, ensure timely access to information for reporting, assessment tools to assess investor decisions, focus on the advice piece, ensure sufficient timeframes to implement reform, and review and monitor the process.
Dunn also said those who could intertwine high levels of technology with superior levels of SMSF advice specialisation, where firms had a specialist division were the ones who would thrive.
"Individuals that are low in their technology and low in their specialisation are now literally hanging on by the skin of their teeth," he said.
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