In Practice

While advisers and their licensees place most of their compliance eggs in the SOA basket, the real focus should remain on more robust client discovery and documentation processes according to Assured Support’s Ben Moffatt.

For advisers that have already started relying on website disclosure, the unclear legislation “may or may not” be an issue, the Cowell Clarke lawyer explained. Whatever approach advisers are currently taking, they should all be paying attention when the regulator releases its guide next month.

Managed accounts may be just “one lever of many” that advisers can use to increase scalability in their practice, but the advantages they offer to both clients and advisers make them a crucial consideration.

An advice group can either shift its compliance settings to accommodate the reforms, or they can reshape their business strategy to take advantage of them. The different paths could lead to a bifurcated industry when all’s said and done.

The ATO has dug its heels in, and is firm in its belief that upfront advice should remain classed as capital expenditure. But the FAAA did gain a significant concession around tax (financial) advice provision.

From behavioural coaching to asset allocation and emotional support, the evolving role an adviser plays sees them take on a raft of heroic guises. The value of that role is now at least 5.7 per cent of clients’ investible funds according to a new report. 

A long-running study has revealed a raft of information about the way financial services professionals communicate with their clients, as well as four key ways they can improve the discourse.

Some sectors will feel the benefits early, and the impact will be all-consuming. Others will take longer, and the effect might only be marginal. For advisers, the impact of AI could depend on how readily they sidle up to technology partners, Amundi says.

Both in the US and at home, the model portfolio market has matured to the point where most advice firms running managed accounts are in the frame to use customised options.

Public relations executive Abbey Minogue has had remarkable success advising financial firms on content marketing strategies to support their growth. As appetite for content grows, she says, practices that ignore these tools will fall behind.

As platform technology develops, the race to become the one dominant platform for Australian advisers is just heating up. In the US, it’s already well underway, with the number of advisers consolidating platforms rising more than 50 per cent in four years.

The online investment industry is growing rapidly, and a whole new set of providers are offering investors different ways to invest in different markets with low-cost, innovative fee arrangements.