Adviser Ratings, the group set up by David Child to rate financial planners, has dropped its upfront fee for an assessment.
Advisers can now undertake the full ratings assessment but will not be able to access the results unless they pay a fee, which prior to the change was charged before undergoing the assessment.
“We have had feedback from advisers saying they would not do the assessment if they have to pay and so now they can do the full survey and see all the questions, but if they want the result, they have to pay for it,” Child says.
Child, who is chief executive of Adviser Ratings, says the decision to move to the new model follows on from initial concerns about protecting the intellectual property in the process and questionnaire.
However with the growth of the business it was time to adopt the upfront fee free approach.
According to Child the group will still retain its original fee structure with advisers paying $225, down from $295, to access the rating and also paying a $350 annual fee to have their result registered on the Adviser Ratings’ website and available to members of the public.
A further optional fee of $770 is available for those advisers who are scored in the premium category which includes a full business audit of an adviser’s systems and skills as part of the premium rating.
“We feel there is no reason why advisers should not have a go at the assessment process because there is no obligation to pay,” Child says.
“All we do is what a client with sufficient time on their hands would do and the process should hold no fears for those advisers doing the right thing.”
About 35 per cent of advisers who have undertaken the assessment have failed to gain a rating and Child says these advisers come from across a range of dealer groups as the ratings cover a mix of individual skills and business systems.
