The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) has launched an upgraded Find a Planner tool, which it said would help advisers grow their business
According to the FAAA, the new Find a Planner has an improved user interface and enhanced profile pages to “better match financial advisers with consumers”.
FAAA members will also be able to utilise greater personalisation options for their profiles to “illustrate their points of difference”.
Tania Milnes, FAAA’s general manager membership, said the launch of the enhanced tool is the final step in the association’s digital transformation, following the redesign of the Money & Life website that is now a consumer hub focused on financial wellbeing and giving members the opportunity to contribute their expertise and knowledge.
“Our members have told us that greater engagement with consumers was something they would like to see from the FAAA. The relaunch of the Find a Planner tool and revamped Money & Life website, including a monthly newsletter, are key elements of this focus,” Milnes said.
“Money & Life offers insights and tips from FAAA members and other experts to help Australians take control of their financial future, as well as better understand the value of advice, while the Find a Planner tool will enable them to find the right adviser for them.”
Consumers will have more options available to filter their search on the new platform, including credentials, areas of specialisation and focus, languages spoken, gender, and years of experience, as well as a keyword search that will pick up any words used in the member’s profile.
The platform also allows members to update their profiles to include more details, such as the starting rates for fees, whether they offer virtual or face-to-face meetings, and including a “quick links” section for access to social media profiles, their FAR profile or Adviser Ratings profile.
The FAAA said it would also launch a marketing campaign later in the year aimed at encouraging consumers to visit the Find a Planner resource.
Seriously, another site! Can’t we have one central place. I have and Adviser Ratings profile that then gets carried through to Aussie Super and CFS. Why can’t this industry work together!!!
This is great news for all the fund managers, regulators, service providers, competitors, and industry analysts that use adviser databases as an information source.
However it is largely irrelevant for consumers, who don’t use it, and advisers who get no benefit from it. FAAA will no doubt trumpet the enormous hit rates they get as a measure of success, but very few of those hits are from genuine prospects.