Independent financial advisers are divided as to how to charge for fee-for-advice, but many are united in their calls to "weed out the shonks", Custom Wealth Solutions managing director Chris Appleyard said.
"When I'm talking with a planner, I can do my due diligence within five minutes. It's 'would I refer my mother to that adviser?'", he said at an advice panel luncheon yesterday.
While lawyers and accountants spent a minimum of four years at university, planners could qualify in a few weeks, he said.
"Planners should have a degree and a minimum net worth," he said.
Wealthtrac managing director Matthew Johnson said approaches to fee-for-advice were as individual as each independent practice, with the problem being that product had subsidised advice in the past.
"The Australian consumer has been used to advice for free," he said, "with commissions taking clips out of the product."
Appleyard said he usually asked his high net worth clients how they wanted to be charged and also negotiated a performance fee with them.
"If I don't perform, I don't get paid," he said.
SuperWise Financial Services director Mark Hawes said his practice was opting for a service fee that was negotiated every 12 months, and with no commissions on risk.
JC Consulting Financial Services Jason Cutrupi said: "the fees issue is overdone. If the client starts with the price questions, we have to turn it into the value proposition."
All the advisers agreed that clients were turning to cash, with OnePath distribution manager New South Wales Ali Parker providing figures on new inflows to support this.
She said that 11 per cent of new business since October last year had gone in to term deposits, and 20 per cent of new business was in cash.
