Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Robert MC Brown
Who says we need more advisers anyway?
You don’t need to be a genius to guess what the media’s reaction will be when the regulator takes action for poor advice, or worse, for the first time against an adviser who has been allowed to remain in the profession based on their experience rather than educational qualifications, and who has not completed any ethics education. It’s bad enough even when qualified advisers get pinged.
Gender inequality: A systemic risk to the Australian economy
Selecting a card or ordering flowers for Mother’s Day is an opportunity to express gratitude and appreciation for the significant role mothers play in our lives. It is also essential to recognise and acknowledge women’s contribution to society and take steps to ensure they receive the recognition and support they deserve. Yet, despite years of progress, women in Australia continue to face significant challenges in achieving equal economic participation.
Balancing stakeholders’ interests – Why it doesn’t work in a profession - Professional Planner
Have you ever wondered why the process of reform is frustratingly slow, tentative and circuitous? It shouldn’t be, you might think, because the need to remove costly and ineffective bureaucracy in financial advice is obvious and urgent, isn’t it? Surely, it’s a “no brainer” that consumers should have the benefit of lower cost advice delivered by well-educated professional financial advisers that make up the profession in 2023. So why doesn’t it happen?
ETF growth demands better market structure
A recent report by PwC outlines the growth trajectory of the ETF market and the areas of focus for asset managers, including active ETFs, thematic ETFs, and ESG ETFs. The report also acknowledges hurdles confronting the growth of the industry. The views expressed are based on the opinions of more than 70 ETF executives from all major markets in the world.
Are you competent enough to run your own licence? Asking for a friend
ASIC cancelled the Australian financial services license of Starfish Financial Services last week, citing “organisational incompetence” as one of the reasons. I know a thing or two about organisational incompetence – I’ve been practicing it for a fair part of my career. Often ASIC’s announcements on bannings, suspensions and fines are a bit ho-hum.
QAR to the side, let’s get on with it
For all of 2022 and the start of 2023, the industry was focused on the Quality of Advice Review. Considerable time and energy has gone into reading consultation papers, attending briefings and preparing submissions. This is not a complaint. The advice review is an important, much-needed look at the effectiveness of the regulatory framework. It promises to significantly reduce complexity in the system, ease the compliance burden on advice businesses and improve advice accessibility and affordability.
He said, she said: Where are the file notes?
Whether you like him or not, Charlie Teo is a skilled neurosurgeon. But for a range of reasons, he’s found himself in court defending allegations brought against him by the families of former patients. Reading the coverage of the proceedings, a lot of focus was placed on what Teo says he did or didn’t say to his patients and their families.
Reducing data intake is not a viable risk mitigation strategy
Gathering personal information and asking probing, exploratory questions are fundamental to being a financial adviser. Indeed, in most professions, personal data is essential for understanding a client/patient’s circumstances, needs and goals. But if that information is not recorded, stored and, ultimately, destroyed properly, businesses and their customers are exposed to significant risk.
QAR, 'good advice' and the statutory 'best interests duty': Handle with care
Much has been said about the Quality of Advice Review recommendation to replace the “Best Interests Duty” with a duty to give “good advice”, and that advisers should be subject to a new “statutory best interests duty”. In doing so, the QAR calls out several failings of BID in its current form.
Boosting productivity without adding resources and cost
A productive business is a highly engaged place to work. In a service-based business, like an accounting and financial advice firm, productivity is the outcome of effective technology, processes and people. Yet, the importance of aligned, motivated people often gets overlooked when building productivity strategies.
Measure twice, cut once: getting regulatory reform right – this time - Professional Planner
Regulatory reform is rarely a straightforward process even at the best of times. We know this because we’ve watched it happen in financial advice numerous times over several decades. It always takes longer than most people would like, it generally happens too late (that is, it’s introduced to address a problem that’s already happened) and it very often goes too far. Not to mention the unintended consequences.
More than QAR and experience pathway needed to solve advice: Jones
The government response to the Quality of Advice Review will eliminate redundant layers of regulations, but the Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones believes more will need to be done beyond the review’s proposals and experience pathway to fix accessibility. Speaking at the Brisbane breakfast of the QAR roadshow, hosted by Conexus Financial in partnership with Allianz Retire+, Jones said he wants at least some of the policies to be put in motion in 2023.
Legislating the objective of superannuation – Is it a Trojan Horse? - Professional Planner
What recently started out as a rather esoteric conversation about the objective of superannuation soon transformed into an emotional political debate about “reigning in superannuation tax concessions”. That’s hardly surprising because any serious discussion about the objective of superannuation inevitably leads to a debate about tax. Therefore, we should make no mistake about it. The current debate is really all about whether and how to increase taxes on superannuation.
A last resort for consumers, the end of the road for licensees
Financial advisers have a mixed track record when it comes to understanding what “last resort” means. Whether it’s a Buyer Of Last Resort scheme or a Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, there’s always some who’ll see it as first option rather than a final one.
The Holy Grail of professional advice – It’s within our grasp - Professional Planner
Over the last two decades I’ve been deeply involved in designing and delivering financial education programs to tens of thousands of ordinary Australians. Throughout that time, the major recurring topic and feedback from participants of all ages and career stages has been the difficulty they experience in finding affordable and trusted financial advice. Note the two criteria are “affordable” and “trusted”.
A world class Employee Value Proposition is not optional anymore
It wasn’t that long ago that employers had all the power. They dictated employment terms and conditions with little regard for the satisfaction and preferences of employees and potential employees. But the tables have turned. Today, employees are in control. The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted people to re-evaluate their life, resulting in many changing the way they work.
A rising tide of capital won’t float all boats
You may have heard about a supposed flood of investment capital heading towards the financial advice profession, with private equity investors and licensees queuing up to acquire equity in well-run, high-quality advice businesses with strong growth potential. It’s real, it’s happening, and it’s going to get bigger. We’re aware of licensees with access to funding running into the tens of millions of dollars gearing up for just such activities, joining the list of those already doing this.
Could the heat of the spotlight destroy superannuation’s social licence?
Minister for financial services Stephen Jones has put the superannuation industry squarely on notice that the government is not happy with the quality of member service currently provided and is demanding funds do better. Jones cited anecdotes of funds simply not answering members’ phone calls and of funds answering calls but not solving the member’s problem. He’s targeting member service and the member experience for a very good reason.
Standing on the outside looking in
If you’re anything like me, you find it way too easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day activities that keep the wheels of a business turning, and way too difficult to spend the time you need to map out a route of where you actually want those wheels to take it. We hear it referred to time and time again as falling into the trap of working in the business, rather than working on the business.
Succession planning – The uncertain consequences of passive investors - Professional Planner
The time-honoured methods of succession planning and growth in the traditional professions of accounting and law are to introduce new partners into the practice or to arrange mergers with other firms. Variations on these themes include the buyout of a practice by a current employee or by another professional practitioner or firm.
The resilience of advice
Recently, there has been much commentary on rising interest rates and inflation and the impacts on investment returns and your clients’ outcomes. There have been very few sectors which have produced positive returns in the last 12 months and so the impacts have been felt across the range of investor profiles. No one has escaped unscathed. It can be challenging in these conditions to feel confident that your advice is delivering value to your clients.
Don’t mention the war: Vanguard’s super move is a challenge to advisers and industry funds
Every so often you come across a story about a soldier from World War II who doesn’t know the war is over and is found living in a jungle somewhere, still fighting the battles of 50 years ago. The industry funds versus advisers war is a bit like that. Industry funds never really were anti-adviser, nor anti-advice, per se. They were anti-commission and anti-conflicted remuneration.
Defending advice: A two-tiered model is no victory for the profession
The parable of the tortoise and the hare is particularly relevant for financial services; the hare with all her natural advantages and skills speeds towards the finishing line only to be overtaken and lose the race because of her delays and bad choices. With the recognition of an advice profession within view, the fragmented advice industry pauses and, distracted by trivialities, is overtaken (and supplanted) by product issuers and software providers.
I Love Failure - Professional Planner
Adele Martin We have to learn to love failure to grow. It’s a hard concept to accept as we have spent a lifetime with the education system telling us that being right was good – you got a “green tick” and being wrong was bad – you got a red cross. And for us left brain thinking financial advisers it’s even harder to embrace failure as we are so logic and compliance focused. But if we are only trying things we know we will succeed at then we aren’t taking risks.
The industry can’t have its cake and eat it too
The mostly laudable proposals of the Quality of Advice Review in which the current prescriptive, complex and costly regulatory regime would be replaced by a shorter principles-based one offer some guidance as to where the discipline of financial advice might be headed. However, the industry can’t have its cake and eat it too. If the industry is to be substantially deregulated and offered the freedoms, advantages and privileges proposed in the review, then it has an important decision to make.
A service for the ages: There’s more to advice than financial returns
Sooner or later most of us are going to have to deal with the issues that accompany our parents’ aging. If we’re lucky they’ll stay fit and healthy, and their later years will be relatively uncomplicated and straightforward to manage. But these things can’t be guaranteed. Recent personal experience has reinforced the true value of advice in dealing with complex and emotional issues.
Don’t mind the gap: Why a two-tier advice system will work
Simplicity and flexibility are foreign concepts in financial services yet they are the hallmarks of Treasury’s Quality of Advice Review interim proposals. Advisers have become so used to regulatory complexity, many are baulking at proposals designed to make their life easier. This is evident reading some submissions to the advice review proposals paper. Their hesitance to fully embrace Michelle Levy’s proposals has been the most interesting of reactions.
The unknown unknowns
A few years ago, a restaurant not far from home was targeted by the NSW Food Authority, which closed it down for a couple of weeks while it addressed issues around food handling and wildlife in the kitchen. When the restaurant re-opened, many people stayed away. But this makes no sense: after a thorough clean-up and being signed off by the authority, the restaurant surely would be among the cleanest in the city.
ASIC remediation changes puts heavy lifting back on licensees
ASIC gave us an update last week on how our largest financial institutions are tracking on remediating customers for various financial advice-related wrongdoings of recent years. So far, the bill stands at $5.6 billion for around seven million individuals and there’s another $1.6 billion yet to be paid to around 2.7 million customers. For those of you who – like me – can’t quickly do sums in their head, it means remediation will be at least $7.2 billion, for 9.7 million customers.
Merging the profession: A positive opportunity for clarity and renewal
The proposed merger between the Financial Planning Association and the Association of Financial Advisers offers a timely opportunity for those associations to consider and clarify their principal purpose and reasons for existence. This is an important conversation to hold because its conclusion is likely to have a significant impact on the future of the new professional body (should it come to pass) and especially on the likelihood of the industry’s eventual evolution into a true profession.
Clean record won’t cut it for experience pathway
A clean record on ASIC’s Financial Adviser Register (FAR) will not be enough to be part of the experience pathway with the government also considering minor infractions. The Government’s consultation on the education carve-out began on Tuesday which stated, relying on the FAR did not capture the full range of misconduct that should preclude someone from eligibility.
‘Technique not technical knowledge’ preventing exam success
Technique rather than technical knowledge is the issue holding back exam candidates that struggle to pass the adviser exam, according to former FASEA national exam manager Farrell Platt. Speaking on a webcast hosted by the Association of Financial Advisers, Platt cited his experience reviewing issues candidates had in their responses to exam questions. “The majority of times its actually technique not technical knowledge,” Platt said.
Record registrations for July exam ahead of October deadline
The corporate regulator has registered a record number of candidates for the last adviser exam sitting before the extension deadline, but the number confirms there are some who won’t take advantage of the reprieve. Existing advisers who failed to pass the FASEA exam twice were granted an extension until the end of September to pass the exam. A spokesperson for ASIC confirmed to Professional Planner that 651 candidates have signed up for the July adviser exam.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Robert
Contact Robert, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack