In a speech to advisers at the AFA’s National Practitioner Roadshow in Sydney yesterday, Mr Fox addressed the challenges of adapting to societal change.
“You’ve got to adapt to societal expectations,” Mr Fox said. “The difficulty of adapting is you’ve got to let go of some part of you.
“If you’ve been a successful risk specialist for 30 years, and you’ve charged upfront commissions all the way through, that’s part of your identity.
“If you’re an adviser that has always used a built-in commission product in the superannuation investment space, maybe that’s part of your identity or part of what it means to your success,” he said.
Mr Fox noted that while it is difficult to change established adviser behaviour, it is important to challenge it in order to move forward and progress as an adviser.
“Adaptive change is about taking the best that you have now and blending it with the best that you need for the future,” he said.
“It is hard to disrupt that, but it is essential that we challenge it – about whether it is the right thing we need to go forward.”
“Advisers must let go of parts of their identity to effectively adapt to change” says AFA chief executive Brad Fox.
We might as well give up part of our identity as we are highly likely to be giving up large amounts of our income in the near future as the FSC and the government advocate changes to insurance based on bank & insurer profits and not what is best for the average Australian consumer.