The SMSF Association’s is expecting to see betterment in the way in which financial advice is delivered to consumers as an identifiable outcome resulting from the Quality of Advice Review Treasury is conducting.
“From our perspective it has to improve the way advice is delivered to a minority of Australians, which are those getting traditional financial advice from financial advisers. That quality is pretty good, but it can be improved like all things,” SMSF Association chief executive John Maroney said during a panel session today at the industry body’s National Conference 2022 being held in Adelaide.
Specifically, Maroney noted the advice framework had to enable practitioners to shift their priorities to reflect a greater client focus.
“The way I look at it is [currently] it’s an 80/20 situation – 80 per cent of the effort is going in to meet compliance obligations, adding a lot to costs, a lot of frustration to clients because it’s not customer centric and for advisers and accountants delivering that [advice],” he said.
“I’d like to see that stripped back so that it’s 20/80 the other way around [where] 20 per cent is focused on [meeting the compliance] requirements and 80 per cent is really genuinely adding value.”
According to Maroney, revisiting the role technology can play is a must with regard to servicing people who do not want to pursue a traditional advice delivery arrangement and is an area where inroads can immediately be made.
“The review [will be] looking at financial advice broadly, including what is delivered by financial advisers through digital advice and the whole range of technological developments which advisers may use, but it can also be done through other mechanisms,” he said.
“That is something where the quality is almost zero so if you do anything to improve the quality of what algorithms do, what digital advice providers can do or will do in future, that is going to improve [the] quality [of] advice.
“And hopefully when these people realise they can get benefits from different forms of support and advice, more of them will be interested in engaging in more traditional forms of comprehensive advice.”
