Lack of specialisation hurting clients

The financial planning industry needs to produce more experts in the field of post-retirement, according to the chief executive of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA), Pauline Vamos.

Speaking at the Financial Planning Association national conference, Vamos said she was concerned that financial planners weren't separating the retirement phase into individual aspects, and that was affecting the financial advice that was being given to clients.

"We have many phases of retirement, and my concern, particularly for post-retirement, is that it's treated as the one thing. Yet there's active retirement, passive retirement, and dependent retirement, and a single [investment] vehicle will not be appropriate for the whole time," she said.

Vamos also said the key to providing people with the best possible retirement outcomes in the superannuation space was for a super fund to maintain a good relationship with its members.

"For the average fund member, particularly those with four account balances, that relationship with their fund manager is key. The way funds provide that [relationship] will continue to change and innovate," she said.

Vamos said the move by super funds into the financial advice space provided key opportunities for financial planners. Many funds were already employed by financial planners, or fully outsourced their advisory services to a third party provider, she said.