Shape of advice

In the first episode of the new season of the Professional Planner Shape of Advice podcast, Vanguard Australia managing director Daniel Shrimski says Australia has many hallmarks of a quality investment destination, but could work on all three of these critical factors.

Professional Planner has relaunched Shape of Advice, a podcast series dedicated to the people, policies and processes that will enable future delivery of quality financial advice. In the first episode of the new season, Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones sits down for an exclusive interview with Conexus Financial editor-in-chief Aleks Vickovich to discuss the Quality of Advice Review process so far, the next steps and the Albanese government's vision for an enhanced financial advice sector. In this wide-ranging discussion, the minister takes us behind the scenes of one of the nation's most complicated and contentious reform projects, explaining where he has been willing to change his position and reflecting on his own performance in a notoriously tough portfolio. 

The way advisers implement their investment recommendations has evolved significantly, most notably in terms of how this process is integrated into businesses as well as the sophistication of outcomes for clients. Investment implementation has fast tracked business efficiency and continuity, it has brought about cost savings and it has been responsible for creating a new institutional-style wholesale and researcher consultant function. This episode considers movements in investment implementation and where the trend is likely to take the advice industry.

Before moving forward, it’s important for advisers and business owners to first step back and consider what they stand for. With so much change in policy and regulation, business models, professional standards and technology in recent years, this episode aims to help advisers detangle their thinking, drawing on practical and philosophical guidance to prepare for the next stage of progress and development.

In this digital age, businesses of all sizes will thrive or whiter based on how they incorporate technology. While advisers may not have necessarily been at the forefront of technology adoption in the past, so much has changed in the composition and purpose of advice practices in recent years, from revenue models, to how advisers spend their time and the expectations clients have of advice relationships. This episode considers where business owners and operators are best placed to spend energy and capital now incorporating technology with an eye to where future models are heading.

It takes a village to support advisers in delivering a service and outcomes that meets clients’ needs in a cost effective way. This episode describes the financial advice value chain, how its composition has morphed over the years and where currently advisers, product and service providers fit.

Administration platforms have been a constant in wealth management and continue to evolve alongside advisers and their practices. As the industry chips away at its product distribution mould and progresses its professional status, platforms have needed to evolve too. This episode considers the integration between platform and advice business, it pulls back the curtain on recent developments with platform/adviser agreements, and it asks what will be most valuable and what may already be redundant in these essential partnerships with advisers.

Where we’ve come from, where we are now and where we’re heading. This episode considers the external and internal impacts that have combined to deliver the local wealth management industry to where it is today and what recent events might tell us about the future direction. The conversation reflects on the Hayne royal commission, looks at Covid19 as a catalyst for change and considers advice in the context of a post product distribution and new revenue fee model world.