Advisers should “overcommunicate” with clients to allay their fears in the current climate, said Kate Anderson, group executive advice services and solutions at Centrepoint Alliance.
“Advisers have an important role to play during this time to guide clients through important and possibly life-changing decisions about their investments, superannuation and pensions,” Ms Anderson said.
“We have seen markets tumble before but they will bounce back and that is an important message, particularly for those who are still accumulating. For clients who are transitioning to retirement, they are the ones who more than ever will need to speak to a professional about their income requirements.”
Advisers should now be testing their ability to work from home and put into place business continuity plans to ensure service isn’t disrupted at a critical time in financial markets.
“This is an opportune time to demonstrate to clients the value of advice and confirm your commitment to remain open for business, just in a different way,” Ms Anderson said.
Centrepoint has also implemented a range of measures to support advisers and their clients, including holding weekly briefings for advisers and providing regular updates on industry and market changes, as well as creating templates and tools to help advisers communicate with their clients during the period of disruption.
“As an industry, we need to be patient as the government and regulatory bodies work through the current challenges,” Ms Anderson said.
“A good licensee should be keeping advisers up to date with what’s happening and helping advisers to communicate with their clients in the most timely and effective way.”
Advisers should also be discussing relevant investment time horizons with their clients, says Miriam Herold, head of research at Centrepoint.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with the fear and loss aversion, which is likely to be triggered in some clients by recent market turmoil and the developing pandemic,” Ms Herold said.
“It is at times like these that advisers can really add value by helping a client to understand their individual time horizon and financial requirements.”
And just make certain you disclose the buy/sell spread correctly in your RoA ! They change intraday.
This is the message to send to legislators. We are helping or clients right now and preserving billions of value in client wealth. Super ratings claim that a $10,000 draw down from super now will cost $80,000. So 8 times the value. With Uni Super alone switching $2bn to cash plus all the other funds our there how much is it going to cost clients.
So i’ve met my obligation of 1 review per year as directed by ASIC client. Now you want help on your super fund as you are concerned and will likely switch it to cash. You need to pay me an the same fee you’ve agreed to again because ASIC don’t understand advice. Plus i can’t see all my clients because the ASIC paperwork takes too long so i’m going to run an auction and start work for the highest bidder first.
They’ve got it all wrong. Reduce compliance documentation (not best interest) so we can work and help clients.
That would be in the best interest of consumers and make advice more accessible and affordable to more Australians.
The times we are in now clearly demonstrate what clients really value from advisers. While ASIC thinks an annual review covering all the BID steps is the be all and end all of the relationship, here we are taking phones, responding to emails and providing importance guidance to clients to stop them making bad decisions. While $2 billion of unadvised clients funds have been switched to cash in one union fund alone, putting those clients in a significantly worse off position, advisers continue to work to ensure our clients make informed and appropriate decisions. You are getting a glimpse of what the future of advice looks like with the ASIC approved union funds being the dominate player, and that future leaves clients in a significantly worse position.
Imagine if we said, sorry client I can’t talk to you now, you only get one review per year. That’s at least what asic seem to think we do.