What does innovation in the advice profession mean to you?
The advice profession is going through significant change and challenge, and naturally that environment creates innovation. But to me, true innovation starts with client outcomes, not efficiency or productivity.
As a profession, we’ve become very good at following a step-by-step, regulator-led advice process. Many advisers continue to run the same playbook, rather than stepping back and asking whether the way we deliver advice makes a meaningful difference to our clients’ lives.
Innovation isn’t about producing better documents or faster processes. A Statement of Advice, no matter how technically sound, makes little difference unless it’s brought to life through ongoing guidance, coaching, and accountability. Otherwise, it becomes just another document that doesn’t materially change a client’s life.
For me, financial advice is fundamentally about creating options for clients. Options around lifestyle, work, education for their children, and how they want to live at different stages of life. Greater wealth creates greater choice. Innovation must support that core responsibility, not business performance. I firmly believe that if we genuinely add value to clients’ lives, business performance takes care of itself.
Congratulations on winning Innovator of Year at the ifa Excellence Awards, can you tell us how you think you won this award?
I think what differentiated this innovation was that it wasn’t built around what advisers think clients need, but around how clients experience financial decision-making.
The Wealth Generation Program was created after recognising that even clients receiving good technical advice were still uncertain, disengaged, or stressed about their overall financial direction. Rather than solving isolated problems, the program focuses on guiding clients through a structured financial journey designed to progressively increase their options over time.
It was developed on the back of years of client feedback, focus groups, and real-world testing. Clients consistently told us they didn’t just want better investments, they wanted clarity about what their wealth could enable, whether that meant choosing private schooling, reducing work earlier, or having flexibility when life priorities changed.
Importantly, this wasn’t about making advice cheaper or faster. It was about making it more meaningful. When clients see a clear path forward and feel supported, they’re willing to wait, commit long term, and pay for value. That challenged the assumption that innovation must always reduce cost to be effective.
What are some ways you want to see other advisers innovate in their practices?
I’d like to see advisers innovate by shifting their mindset away from product-led solutions and toward strategy-led guidance.
The profession evolved from insurance brokers, bankers, and stockbrokers, and while we’ve come a long way, remnants of product distribution still influence how advice is delivered. Too often, financial challenges are approached through investments as the default solution, rather than starting with the best strategy, which may not always involve a financial product at all. That may require advisers to rethink how they structure their fees.
Innovation means broadening the scope of advice to include cashflow, lifestyle decisions, debt management, behaviour change, and long-term structure, areas that have the biggest impact on outcomes but are often overlooked.
I’d also like to see more advisers focus on habit-building and accountability. Clients often know, at a basic level, what they should do. Our role is to help them overcome psychological barriers and turn intention into action.
One ‘innovation’ we are hearing a lot about in the advice space is the use of AI, what role do you see it playing in the average advice workplace?
AI will absolutely play an important role in improving efficiency, reducing administrative burden, and supporting research, modelling, and documentation. Used well, it can free advisers from low-value tasks and allow more time for meaningful client engagement.
However, AI cannot replace the core of financial advice, which is behavioural. Clients don’t struggle because they lack information. They struggle because of fear, inertia, short-term thinking, and emotional decision-making.
It’s like smoking, people know it’s bad for them, but knowledge alone doesn’t drive change. They need external support, accountability, and encouragement. That’s where advisers add real value.
AI can support better advice delivery, but it cannot address psychological barriers or build trust-based accountability. The future belongs to advisers who combine technology with strong human guidance, not those who try to automate the relationship itself.
What do you think the biggest challenge facing the advice profession going into 2026 will be?
The biggest challenge will be balancing regulation, sustainability, and client outcomes.
While many regulatory changes were well intentioned, we’re now at a point where advisers are spending a disproportionate amount of time justifying advice rather than delivering it. This makes the profession reactive and increases the cost of advice, reducing accessibility for Australians who genuinely need help.
The risk is that advice becomes more about process than purpose. If advisers feel they must wait for regulators to define how they fulfil their duty to clients, innovation slows and engagement suffers.
That said, this pressure also presents an opportunity. Firms that rethink service models, focus on long-term client relationships, and innovate around behaviour, engagement, and accountability will thrive.
The profession’s future depends on returning to its core mission: helping people make better financial decisions and navigate life’s financial challenges with confidence.
