Despite negative ‘adviser exodus’ commentary floating around, there are still opportunities in the financial advice market worth embracing, says one adviser who has just opened his new practice.
Speaking to Money Management, Ross Little, founder of Vivify Sustainable Wealth, said he had been thinking about “getting back on the tools” after a stint away from financial advice.
Little, who was based in Brisbane, opened his practice in June 2022 after previously working at Ord Minnett and Macquarie Group and had 18 years experience in financial services. Vivify had a focus on sustainable financial advice which he believed was an underserved market.
“[Sustainable investing] is kind of the centre of what I wanted to do,” Little said.
“I’ve been studying sustainability – I’m two thirds the way through a Master’s and so I feel like I have a better depth of knowledge than the average adviser around the issues at hand.
“And in that regard, with advisers leaving, the numbers showing that clients increasingly want the ability to at least discuss, if not get access to these sorts of investments, and that being an underserviced market, I thought that there was still a massive opportunity to play.”
Despite the number of advisers in the industry expected to hit 14,000 in the next couple of years, according to the Association of Financial Advisers, Little said he saw massive opportunities in niche areas.
He felt there were still a lot of reasons to be optimistic, including the proliferation of more efficient advice technology and practices and a healthier industry in the longer term.
“With the ‘regulatory burden’, so to speak that everyone’s been banging on about, hopefully with Labor getting in and Stephen Jones saying what he’s been saying [in regard to the experience pathway], then that would be alleviated,” he said.
“I think there’s a lot of good opportunities there that I’m really excited about embracing. The likes of video advice, and video Statements of Advice as opposed to the traditional documentation burden that’s existed.”
As for his plans for his business, Little said “it’s only early days”.
“It’s only very early days, obviously and I’ll be growing organically but the way that I want to do it.”
