The XY Adviser network held its inaugural meeting at Westpac’s Sydney headquarters last week, outlining its manifesto as a “group of progressive thinking and professionally minded young advisers focused on helping Australians achieve better financial outcomes and raising the standards of financial advice”.
“This is not about shaming the past – all of us are grateful for the older advisers and what they have done to build the industry – but the baton has been handed on to us. We are here for the next 20 or 30 years and I want to start turning up to barbecues being proud to tell people I’m a financial adviser,” said XY Adviser co-founder and Hillross adviser Clayton Daniel.
“If health is the top concern of Australians, wealth has to be number two, and we want to become advisers that go far beyond just recommending an investment or insurance product.”
Attendees highlighted a number of challenges that the industry faces, from the pressure of new business KPIs to availability of technology and the enduring focus on technical finance education, as opposed to psychological or soft skills training.
Addressing the event, Mr Fox acknowledged the concerns, calling on the XY Adviser members to not shy away from making their voices heard within their respective licensee networks.
“Licensees trying to comply with the law and make advisers over-compliant is one of the main impediments to advice,” Mr Fox said.
“At this stage, advisers haven’t been given the full responsibility to be a personal professional.
“These are the challenges that advisers face and you guys need to face into them because you are at the cutting edge of being able to change them.
“Are you doing anything to create the change you want to see in your workplaces?”
Mr Fox encouraged the young advisers to make themselves known to their dealer group advisory boards or get involved in internal dealer group politics or with the industry association sub-groups such as GenXT.
“In life you don’t always get to be the decision-maker, but you can influence the influencers,” he said.
The next meeting of XY Adviser will be taking place at TAL’s Sydney headquarters on Wednesday 26 November.
I don’t think Financial Advice requires a game changer. The industry is moving forward and having a group like this can only help raise the standards of advice.
The sooner we can do this together the faster more Australians will start taking up the advice they need. The idea of building on the professionalism of these (and all) Advisers will be a step in the right direction to avoiding some of the problems that have occurred in the past.
Personally I cannot wait for the next event.
What we need is fresh faces at association, management and ASIC level. People who will push for meaningful change in providing efficient professional advice without the regulatory overload.
I think back 15 years. What has changed for the better since then? umm err ummm yep nothing except more fatter regulatory guides, fatter SOAs, more confusion and more complaints. If that trend continues, god help us.
If you think it will get better just because more younger advisers come on board, well it won’t unless some fundamental changes are made from above….
Good thought Peter Kelly, but until Dealerships seek to align advisors of all ages instead of seeking to alienate them by age, it won’t happen. My observation of Dealerships is they spend most of their time trying to recruit more advisors instead of looking after the ones they have and cementing the ones they have into a solid unit. Was it JFK who said “We don’t have enough people in the world who can paint mental pictures which unite people?” That’s the problem…Merv Gay
Being a “more mature” member of the financial services community, I applaud this initiative. The Gen X and Y cohort are the future of our profession and will be “our” advisers in the future. But take head to Jim’s comment and seek to be guided by good mentors. There are enough mature advisers out there that would love the opportunity to work with the younger ones coming through.
I support any idea that promotes our profession, be it old or young person initiative. Beware of the pitfalls of you young persons and get yourself some good mentors, this profession is largerly deals with other people money(emotions) and if you do not know how to handle it, learn from the one’s who know.
Good luck.
Well done Clayton, it’s a great initiative.
Ian, advice that is instant and self-directed isn’t financial advice, it’s just doing what you want to do.
Ian and Merv, your old school humbuggery is probably the kind of cultural change these kids are railing against. the future looks bright, great initiative!
Really?
More spin to confuse the market place.
First we had “women in super network” that was going to be a game changer
Now we have XY to be the game changer
In 25 yrs the only thing that hasnt changed is listening to the market, something retail advisers have become bad at, hence the preference and growht of the ISN.
FYI, on Education, more Lawyers and Accountants are in jail than Financial Advisers so claiming education as the game changer is only good for those selling education.
Game changers are coming and they will come ion the form of technology that enables advice to be self directed and instant- and that is not far off IMHO
Sounds like a crazy mixed up kid to me. On one hand he says, “this is not about shaming the past,” intimating there is something to be “ashamed” of. Naturally that would be the older advisors of course, no young person EVER “shamed” anything. Then he virtually says He “wants to be proud to tell people he’s a financial advisor.” Well what’s HE ashamed of? You change the world by changing yourself not telling us how wonderful you’re “going to be.” We’ll judge that – in time.
Thank you Jack. Really appreciate the support. This group is all about banding together as financial advisers. We have enough fingers being pointed at us from certain sections of the media and government, but this is a place to support each other, compare our experiences, and do what we can to improve this profession moving forward.
Great to see the next generation of advisers driving professional standards and taking control of their future, congratulations to you all.