Advice

There are plenty of people in the investment industry who say they have been influenced by legendary investor Warren Buffett, but for Gold Coaster Hugh Robertson, the obsession with the “Oracle of Omaha” started when he didn’t really know anything about him. It was the start of a journey that led to his advice firm, Centaur Financial Services.

Melbourne-based Link Wealth Group has acquired its fourth advice practice, buying a majority stake in Hobart-based full-service financial advisory firm, Sky Advisers.

The first thing advisers need to remember, Cerulli notes, is that almost half the intergenerational transfer won’t event be intergenerational, it will be horizontal or intra-generational because it will be passed on to spouses.

AFCA stands by the use of its “But for” methodology to calculate compensation payments, despite the FAAA’s protestations. Clients will get paid what they lost, plus what they would have earned if the advice wasn’t inadequate. Just don’t call it payment for theoretical loss, or opportunity cost.

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.

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. 

Dealing with the complexity of her own UK pension led the adviser to specialising in helping clients to do the same. Since then, she’s become an expert in a field most other advisers shy away from.

Advisers are uniquely positioned to identify and alleviate financial abuse cases, but they need support and an action framework according to the association.

Making a connection is at the heart of any financial adviser’s value proposition, the consultant says. But to do that, the right language must be leveraged to understand what a client’s legacy values truly are.

The good news? Millions of unadvised Australians see the value in financial advice. The bad news is that the vast majority remain reluctant to attach market rates to that value, even if the advice is digital. But all that has the potential to change.

Bringing super funds and other institutions into the advice ecosystem should benefit consumers by creating an organic path for them to follow as their needs become more complex. More would benefit if the review also took into account the SMSF capabilities of accountants, stakeholders believe.