I am sure you have heard the words from Albert Einstein where he said “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”.
Our financial planning industry regulations and legislation has continued to change and there looks to be many more ahead based on last week’s parliamentary sitting – yet ongoing industry training continues to be the same old school product provider sessions of 20 years ago.
Everyone acknowledges that continuing professional development is an essential part of ensuring that we as financial planners improve our knowledge. I know it was 10 years ago that I completed my Diploma of Financial Planning, which means that I completed my tax subject over 15 years ago. The only way I have managed to keep up with regulations is by ensuring I get the relevant knowledge to keep this element of advice I provide up to date.
For too long we have relied on our licensees to support us in ensuring we meet the ongoing training requirements, with many based on a continuing professional development point or hour system. Yet time and time again licensees roll out training days where the sessions are just a branded “product flog” or a supposed “educational session” that leads into a “product flog”. It just has a fancy title.
For years, I have spoken about planners moving from product sales to true, objective-based advice. Advice that focuses on strategy and structure with product being secondary, if even required at all. How is it that if I add more value as an objective-based advice planner that I still have to attend mandatory licensee training that has product at the end? Surely this shows that as an industry we are running the same training over and over again and yet expecting planners to be different!
In 2016, MyPlanner took stock of our ongoing training plans. If I didn’t want to attend the PD days and conferences, surely our planners wouldn’t want to either. We ran a national conference with no fund manager presenters. Not one. At 9am on Sunday morning the rooms were packed with planners who wanted to hear sessions that truly improve how they do business, how they engage with clients, speaking to other planners about how they do business.
This lead us into thinking about what else needs to change. If planners want this style of training, why don’t we move these “product education sessions” online so planners who may want to meet their Corporations Act “know your product” rules can view it in their own time?
Then how about making PD days a place for planners to present to each other? How they do a first appointment, to planners talking about their compliance experiences and how to be better, to showcasing what they are doing in their client services packages and how they deliver them.
Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers speaks about 10,000 hours rule, where he states that if you would like to have world-class level skills in a chosen field, you need to commit 10,000 hours. Some of this could be on-the-job training, but if you assume an eight-hour day, five days per week, 50 weeks a year – it will take five years for me to be a specialist financial planner with world-class skills. The question is though, if I completed 10,000 of product education sessions could I still class myself as a world-class financial planner?
With training regulations about to change again in the years to come, I encourage you now to take stock of what sort of training is going to give you a different result? What sort of training will give you world-class skills in the fantastic industry we are in today – financial planning. Let’s make 2017 different.
Philippa Sheehan is the managing director at MyPlanner Australia Pty Ltd
Wasn’t it Malcolm Gladwell who wrote that book?
Excellent article and surely outlines the thinking of many Financial Planners. Our profession is developing and growing and we need to adapt, we also want to build and grow our businesses, improve our soft skills, engage with our peers and hear about how thye have helped a client or made a change in their practice.
I could not agree more with Philippa’s comments about product providers at training days. It is great to hear that her ‘conflict-free’ training days were so well-received. It echoes our experience at Dover, where we have never allowed product providers to attend (every year we catch a few trying to sneak in as attendees to hand around their business cards, though!) We run these training days in each capital city, and about half of the attendees are from groups other than Dover. Their feedback in particular is telling: how refreshing they find training that is about growing their business, not being a sales agent for someone else’s.
Good to hear that Dover doesn’t allow 3rd party product flogging at PD Days. But what about internal product flogging?
Inappropriately recommending clients use SMSFs that are administered by an associate company of your dealer group is just as conflicted if not more so. Justifying it on the basis of “not giving the admin fees to XYZ institution” is hardly a reasonable basis for the advice.
People who live in glasshouses you dig in deep enough you will find them equally flawed at those they seek to sling mud on
Dover’s 2017 training days kick off in each capital city in March. There is no cost to attend for financial advisers, including those from outside the Dover group. I invite people to come along and see for themselves whose interests are being advanced by this training. I think you will find that the clients’ best interests dominate.
Dover staff and several hundred advisers will be there. Importantly, we will all be wearing name tags – so you can be confident that what we are saying is true.
I hate to insist on accuracy in an opinion piece but Albert Einstein never said anything of the sort (or, more accurately, we can’t prove he did). It is a misattribution and has also been credited to Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. http://www.news.hypercrit.net/2012/11/13/einstein-on-misattribution-i-probably-didnt-say-that/
We’re of the important point of this piece but that quote is, as you said, attributable to a number of people INCLUDING Einstein. But regardless of who said it, it is appropriate to the Philippa Sheehan’s article.
Sorry RT I don’t understand what you’re trying to say but I think you’ve misread or misunderstood. The quote can’t be attributed to Einstein or any of the other people because they never said it. It’s been [i]misattributed[/i] to Einstein and the others. As an observation it’s appropriate but, as Jesus said, you don’t need to attribute your personal opinions to famous people to make them more credible.
Hopefully ASIC raises this as a red flag when a dealer group’s managing director is referring to ‘know your product’, rather than best interests duty!
Despite a best interest duty there is an obligation to know your product. It goes hand in hand.
ASIC who? they don’t want to know what’s going on. they are positioning for their next job at a big insitution
very true, often PD days are for Dealer Group BDM’s and to as lesser extent product suppliers to justify their existence and their fee’s (as in the case of Dealer Groups) we have tried to have adviser driven presentations for year and this is now starting to happen in our dealer Group due to some forward thinking management and some active Advisers looking to share their experience and techniques. many dealer groups are dinosaurs’ in how they engage with their advisers and the attempt to control the control the advisers product decisions is still strong.
Very well said. An convenient truth for so many licensees to face.
And let’s not even open the argument around the rather embarrassing “local community fair” which is the “supporter’s” display booths and show bags. Honestly, how did they get past the 70s. Oh that’s right, the licensee needed money to fund their PD Day.