One or two advertisements do not represent the true indicator of a long-term campaign, but financial planners should take heart that the Industry Super Network (ISN) appears to have changed the “messaging” contained in its television advertising.
Either by coincidence or design, the advertising appearing under the logo of the ISN through the opening months of 2012 lauds the value of superannuation without at the same time diminishing the value of advice or referencing the payment of commissions to financial planners.
Of course, given the manner in which the Government developed its Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) bills and the role played by the ISN, it would have been odd, indeed, if the industry super funds had opted to maintain their confrontational approach.
Financial planners should be grateful for the ISN’s apparent change in tactics because it will allow them to focus on one of their most critical tasks in the immediate post-FOFA environment – reinforcing the value of good financial advice.
Despite all the talk about the manner in which the FOFA changes will serve to promote vertical integration and reinforce the dominance of the major banks and institutions in the delivery of financial advice, this does not need to be the case.
Looked at objectively, the post-FOFA environment should prove highly beneficial for financial advisers offering quality, “full-touch”, holistic advice.
Something which became clear at the roundtable conducted by Money Management in the week immediately following the passage of the FOFA bills was that neither intra-fund advice nor scaled advice represent particular problems for well-established “full-touch” advisory firms.
Premium Wealth’s Paul Harding-Davis made the point very clearly when he acknowledged that his dealer group probably did not have either the scale or the types of clients which would warrant pursuit of a scaled advice solution.
By contrast, Mercer’s Jo-Anne Bloch made clear that scaled advice delivery was a core strategy for her organisation and something which it would be strongly pursuing in the months ahead.
In other words, it is not the advent of scaled advice which will change the underlying texture of the financial planning industry; it will more likely be the manner in which the FOFA legislation impacts dealer group commercial models.
Then, too, those financial planners who have become too reliant on trails and who continue to carry too many ‘C’ and ‘D’ clients on their books will need to consider whether they can survive in a post-FOFA world.
Reality dictates that planners must make the best of the environment in which they now find themselves. With the industry funds having wound back their anti-planner messages, the way is clear to more forcefully sell the value of good advice – and it is a message worth selling.
