Addressing the Adviser Innovation Summit 2020, founder of Talking Money and money coach Melissa Meagher highlighted several underlying cracks advisers must fill, with a need to return to the very basics for their clients.
“COVID has highlighted the existing cracks for Australians, the ways they think about money and their views towards it,” she said.
“For financial planners and businesses, they need to start pulling back the curtains and shine a light on their client’s money management.”
Ms Meagher said that advisers should support clients and focus on what is “within and without their locus of control”.
“A whole new level of support is needed in this current landscape,” she said.
Ms Meagher also said that the pandemic has allowed Australians to define what is truly valuable to them financially.
As a result, this is also an opportunity for financial advisers to “stand out from the crowd”.
“Advisers need to pivot and adapt to meet the changing needs of their clients in the current environment,” she said.
“Clients are also looking beyond the ‘traditional advice model’. It is the perfect opportunity to create a powerful and relevant value proposition model and demonstrate that to your clients.”
Redefining the client experience
Meanwhile, Marcus Cann, head of partnership engagement at Volt Bank, told the summit that advisers will need to move past traditional approaches and work with their clients to embrace a digital future.
“Clients are increasingly becoming digital and relying less on traditional structures,” he said.
Understanding client behaviour will be important, with Mr Cann pointing to the use of new innovations in data analytics to analyse the client’s journey.
“At Volt Bank we’ve realised that customers are now on daily journeys to be better off and live life to the fullest,” he said.
“Advisers will need to find out how they can use real time information and data analytics to best connect with their client’s journey.
“This would then enhance the advice process. Advisers can, therefore, provide real-time advice and real-time engagement with customers.”
More than 1,400 advisers registered for this year’s Adviser Innovation Summit, a three-day event focused on helping advisers pivot to innovative new business strategies in the face of economic and regulatory challenges to the industry.
“Today’s sessions delivered a number of new techniques to build ongoing engagement with your clients,” said Zac Leman, head of managed accounts at BT.
“At BT, we invest in smart technology, support and tools that enable advisers to deliver an even greater experience for their clients at a time when connecting with clients has never been more important.”
Several attendees of this year’s summit also walked away with a series of prizes, with Brad Pattinson of YarraPark Consultants taking out the BT points competition for a $500 cash prize.
Ray Stewart from Solutions 2 Retirement won the summit’s daily survey prize for $500 cash, while Paris Bisley from Expert Wealth walked away with a $100 Amazon gift voucher from Implemented Portfolios.
Mr Bisley also took out the $50 gift card from WealthO2, with Phillip Dibben from Financial Services SA the winner of a $150 JB Hi-Fi voucher from Praemium. Nav Bhathal of Aussie Wealthy Life also won Feedsy’s Time Save Communicator Service.
