Speaking on a panel at the 13th annual Wraps, Platforms & Masterfunds conference in the Hunter Valley last week, Michael Kinens, senior business development executive at IRESS – the company behind XPLAN – said advisers are challenged by time constraints in the current regulatory environment.
“Time is the biggest challenge – which means they can’t focus on making their businesses more efficient, they can’t focus on identifying what [their] value proposition is – they are being stretched overall in terms of their capacity to address the many issues being thrown at them,” Mr Kinens said.
“They are so stretched for time and ultimately it comes down to simplicity – but it’s not simple, it’s not a challenge that can be easily addressed.”
Mr Kinens’ comments follow statements from fellow panel member Chris Appleyard, chief executive of non-bank dealer group Custom Wealth Solutions, that “identity” that developing a sustainable value proposition is the biggest challenge facing advisers.
“It’s challenging right now across the financial services industry but for advisers it’s really getting the value proposition down and how to differentiate yourself in the marketplace, especially given the move away from a ‘sales’ mentality,” said Mr Appleyard, who also heads SMSF software company CleverSuper.
Meanwhile, Association of Financial Advisers board member and Integra Financial Services director Deborah Kent said that “efficiency” is the number one challenge.
“It is quite an expensive exercise to run a financial advice firm for those that are thinking about doing it – and it has just become a lot more expensive,” Ms Kent said. “FOFA has added an additional layer of administration through a lot of practices – and some are still struggling – some don’t even know what their requirements are.”
What is the biggest single challenge facing advisers right now? Have your say below.
[quote name=”David Gold”]
Lawrence, data is available from InvestmentLink, been around for 20 years and provides full transaction history for clients currently covering over 50 funds. They will be providing full transaction history for clients covering bank, credit card, mortgage, insurance and more shortly, so all client data in one place for you to use.[/quote]
Thanks for the response David – can’t say I’ve heard of them but I’m only 2 years deep in the industry. Don’t know if their software links into XPLAN, but if it does not then that’s just another form of inefficiency in my eyes.
[quote name=”Lawrence Shamrakov”]Achieving efficiency is a constant challenge in the industry,
I look forward to a day where my client’s can opt to have their day-to-day banking data feed to our system, industry/retail funds open up their systems to similar functionality, and insurance companies etc. I often leave clients in their retail funds, but cringe knowing that I have to ring up and update the balance whenever meeting the client.
Lawrence.[/quote]
Lawrence, data is available from InvestmentLink, been around for 20 years and provides full transaction history for clients currently covering over 50 funds. They will be providing full transaction history for clients covering bank, credit card, mortgage, insurance and more shortly, so all client data in one place for you to use.
COMPLIANCE
The regulators and license providers, due to a lack of foresight and vision have created a monster. A 30 page client data form, an 8 page FSG followed by a 40 page SOA complete with detailed file notes on every utterance, and now a 4 page FDS and Opt-in (or maybe not). That’s just to recommend someone invest a small amount of money as a long term investment and review it once a year. Complete stupidity.
Achieving efficiency is a constant challenge in the industry, where technological standards are quite young. There’s a lot of inefficient data gathering going on at the moment, from initial client data collection to updated portfolios and insurance details.
I look forward to a day where my client’s can opt to have their day-to-day banking data feed to our system, industry/retail funds open up their systems to similar functionality, and insurance companies etc. I often leave clients in their retail funds, but cringe knowing that I have to ring up and update the balance whenever meeting the client.
Lawrence.