Pro bono work would boost public’s perception of advice
Many consumers are unaware of financial benefits available to them and helping them to understand this via pro bono work would boost the public’s perception of financial advice.
Pro bono work offers financial advisers the opportunity to work with clients who were experiencing financial stress but might not ordinarily be available to afford advice, an area that had been highlighted by the high cost of advice.
Incidents of financial stress had increased during the pandemic as people were furloughed or lost their jobs. One-in-four Australians said they felt under financial stress during the pandemic and one-in-three said their financial situation had worsened, according to research by charity The Smith Family.
Speaking to Money Management, Nicola Beswick, senior financial adviser at FMD Financial and chair of the Pro Bono Financial Advice Network said there had been an increase in people seeking advice, particularly those suffering personal health crises.
“We have had so many more enquiries that advisers could help them with. We help people who have gone through personal health diseases and match them with an adviser who wants to help that cohort.”
“There has been a significant increase in people seeking assistance, we have 130 advisers in our network and would love to have more.”
She said pro bono work did not need to take up a lot of an adviser’s time.
“It doesn’t need to be a lot of work, even helping one client a year would be helpful.
“You can change people’s life by just talking with them for an hour, I have had so many cases where clients didn’t realise about insurance in superannuation that they could claim and that can have a significant change to their life and they may not have even known.”
While there was no continuing professional development (CPD) points available as an incentive to do pro bono work, Beswick said a positive activity would go towards changing the public’s perception of financial advisers.
“I would love it to count for CPD, that is definitely something to think about but maybe it would detract from the altruism we get from it.
“There is also a sense of highlighting that advisers are good and it is a way to change the negativity around advisers.”
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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