Tag: financial advice

Patent attorney-turned-financial adviser Nicola Beswick is a woman with a very strong vision of what advice can be, and how it should be delivered. Take a peek into her world.

The wealth management industry is undergoing a profound transformation, with change arriving through many vectors. Decentralised advice models, in which advisers control both the client relationship and investment decision-making, are beginning to show their limitations.

Jane Tandy’s journey through the financial services industry is a testament to purpose-driven ambition shaped by a deep connection to community. Her career began with an early appreciation for financial planning, instilled through her family’s long-standing relationship with a trusted adviser.

Growing their practices through M&A has many attractions for advice firms, but integration of the additional entity has to be thought-through carefully, writes Michael Nathanson — who should know, having bedded-down more than 300 transactions in building Focus Financial Partners.

It was a year that saw private capital become cool and asset consultants become kings. Advice reform continued to plod its clunky path, while the Dixon’s scandal lingered through the much-derided CSLR program. Through it all, surging demand and resilient investment markets fuelled a robust year for advisers, with their businesses streaking ahead of licensees in terms of profitability and value.

After years of regulatory turmoil and a violently shifting business landscape, the advice industry may be on the cusp of a relatively calm period. For advisers, this could be the right time to reflect, revise and even reset their business.

Despite the emotional expenditure required to hold someone’s hand in the darkest hours of their life, whilst retaining a high degree of professional acumen, it is both a responsibility and an honour. But it can leave a scar, writes Drew Meredith.

The minister is putting his financial advice eggs in the superannuation basket, with dramatic changes to the existing intrafund advice models being considered. “I don’t think fiddling with intrafund advice is going to get us where we need to be,” he said.

As romantic as it may be to proclaim the emergence of an advice profession and to suggest that a ‘good advice’ duty is a panacea for systemic failures, the retreat of institutional licensees from advice is not necessarily evidence of our capacity for self-regulation.