Adviser mental health deteriorating since GFC
The high volume of regulation and market downturn has led to a deterioration of financial advisers' mental health since the Global Financial Crisis.
Jordan Tang, head of retail distribution at Janus Henderson, said he had noticed the decline since the GFC as markets "were in the doldrums" and a lot of advisers had bought financial planning books where the value of those was based on their revenues which were based on markets.
“For others, they may have personal issues or have over-leveraged themselves, people think financial advisers have their own financial lives under control which is not always the case,” Tang said.
He said the financial advice industry had been namechecked as being more at risk than other industries for poor mental health due to the high volume of regulation and negative scrutiny it came under in the media.
“The industry is very heavily regulated and there is a lot of negative press, advisers cop a fair bit of negative publicity and there needs to be more discussion about the impact of that.”
The large proportion of men working in the industry also played a part as one in eight men would experience depression and seven-out-of-nine suicides every day in Australia were men, according to Beyond Blue.
“It is more common in men aged 20-45, there is an assumption guys are stronger and don’t think about it much, they tend to keep it to themselves and you might not know anything is wrong. We are hoping men will get more comfortable about mentioning it.”
Tang set up the Berry Motorfair, a classic car event to be held on 7 October with an aim to raise $100,000 to support mental health.
This would be its second year, having raised $50,000 for Lifeline last year.
Supported by fund managers including Janus Henderson, Perpetual and Crestone, the event would display over 100 classic cars.
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Laura Dew
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