Advisers slammed for lack of referrals

Financialadvisers have been criticised for failing to recommend client businesses, with calls for advisers to make the notion of referrals a two-way affair.

Invescohead of sales and marketing Peter Hodgson, speaking at theFinancial Planning Association’s (FPA) Victorian State Conference recently, told delegates that while advisers want referrals from clients, they rarely in turn provide referrals recommending a client’s business.

“It’s interesting that advisers are very poor at giving referrals regarding a client’s business,” Hodgson says.

Hodgson says advisers are also very reluctant to ask for business from people they encounter.

“The ultimate question is to ask for the business. I have only been approached three times in 10 years,” he says.

According toPerpetualVictorian state manager Brett Mennie, his group has conducted research to understand the needs of a financial planning business and client perception of it.

The research found 80 per cent of those surveyed believed financial planning was very important.

“The client is looking at how the adviser demonstrates their expertise and their honesty. This involves telling the client about negative returns, which means the adviser becomes believable,” Mennie says.

“The client also wants reliability, which means the adviser should complete the promise and pay attention to simple things, like returning phone calls.”

The survey also found younger advisers were perceived to be more up-to-date with what was happening in the industry, while older advisers were seen to have more experience, having worked through a number of downturns. However, the fact that they would retire soon, probably before the client, was seen as a negative.