Advisers frustrated at Jones’ lack of disclosure

Advisers are fatigued, according to Amplify Wealth’s Tanya Carlson.

Speaking on a recent ifa podcast, Ms Carlson explained that as time passes, advisers are gradually realising that the changes anticipated after the Quality of Advice Review’s (QAR) final report was submitted to Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones may take longer than expected and may not materialise in the way they had envisioned.

“I think there’s been a lot of chitchat maybe last year about, oh, SOAs will be abolished or whatever. I think we’ve all worked out very quickly that that’s not necessarily going to be something that’s going to happen quickly, if at all. And so as time goes on, people are starting to realise that it will take some time and some of these changes may or may not come through in the way that we had envisaged, or in fact Michelle Levy had envisaged,” Ms Carlson said.

The final QAR report was submitted to Minister Jones mid-December last year, and while he had promised to prioritise fixing the “hot mess” that is the financial advice industry, advisers were told last month that change would be slow.

Namely, speaking at a ticketed event last month, Mr Jones said that the government’s stance on Ms Levy’s recommendations would not be disclosed until after the May budget.

This lack of public disclosure from Mr Jones has been frustrating for advisers, Ms Carlson warned.

“It’s frustrating because when there’s no information, there’s misinformation or miscommunications or misinterpretations, and that can lead to pendulum swinging in various different ways in terms of how people are viewing that. And I think we’re just exhausted,” she said.

“We’re change fatigued, and we’ve had so much going on as a collective in the world with pandemics and so on, and a lot of regulation change and reform, that it just feels like, please tell us what we need to do and how we’re supposed to do it and let’s just get on with it.”

As for whether this fatigue could spark further adviser exits, Ms Carlson said that many are waiting for answers from Mr Jones on several unresolved issues before making a decision about their future.

“I think people are waiting to see what these reforms may look like. Should they be particularly difficult or not even remotely close to where people are thinking they may land, I think could be another catalyst for further exits,” she explained.

“I think there’s a lot of people or a percentage of people that are in that little middle of, I’m not quite sure if I want to do another five to 10 years here or whether I should get out now. And some of those changes will affect those people.

“For the majority, I believe that most of us who have remained, have remained because we’re very willing to ride through this period of time. Whilst it can be challenging, we’re committed to our clients, our businesses, the fact that we know that fundamentally financial advice changes people’s lives for the better. And if we look at that big picture, of course we’re going to hang in there, but not without the odd frustration or two.”

To hear more from Ms Carlson, tune into our podcast here.