Australia’s financial advisory market lacks choice for clients seeking access to advice as the biggest share of the market is now controlled by large institutions, according to an advice chief.
Professional Investment Services (PIS) group founder Robbie Bennetts said while the industry had been called upon by the Labor government to provide greater access to quality advice for more Australians, the lack of choice for clients was a concern.
“The whole big thing has been quality of advice – where’s the quality of advice, how are we going to get people to the quality of advice?” Bennetts said.
“I struggle a little bit personally with where they say quality of advice and yet the biggest share of the market now is owned by or controlled by a factor [institutions] and I just think consumer choice has dropped.”
He said in a move to offer greater choice to clients, PIS had revamped its client engagement strategy and launched a new Client for Life policy.
The new program, rolled out through a series of workshops, is about more meaningful interactions between advisers and their clients.
“The objective is to create a greater awareness of needs that relate to family, health and fitness, work and business, money and goals,” Bennetts said.
He said the interactive workshops, which cater for 30, 40, 50 and 60-year-old clients, had been designed to build deeper understanding of client needs, wants and interests.
“This to me fits more along the lines of what everyone says that we need. This is looking at the whole circumstances for the client and giving them the option to have everything looked at the one time,” he said.
