Client engagement will be the biggest issue confronting wealth businesses and advice practices over the next 12 months.
MLC advice and marketing executive general manager Richard Nunn said that as the market changes following Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) and Stronger Super reforms, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of what services they are getting and paying for.
“If managers and advisers don’t work together to make sure that we are effectively servicing our clients, then we potentially run the risk of losing those clients. That has been the big sleeper. We’re working with our advisers now to ensure [we’re] providing the service to all our clients,” Mr Nunn told InvestorDaily.
“We’ve been leading the charge on FOFA now since 2005 and leading the reforms in the advice part of the market. I think that’s paid dividends for us – [we already had] our advice businesses ready for July 2013.”
Mr Nunn explained that being ahead of the upcoming changes has boosted the firm’s advice numbers through organic growth, acquisition and recruitment.
“Our adviser numbers have grown by 44 per cent [between 2008 and 2012]. We’re seeing continued strong interest in our advice value proposition for advisers,” he said.
“We’ve seen success in our adviser growth. We’ve basically been able to put a compelling proposition in front of advisers that we can help transition to the new world.”
In mid-January, MLC-owned Apogee was awarded CoreData Advisory Group of the Year 2012 after being identified in the report as the licensee with the strongest ability to acquire and engage prospective clients.
Mr Nunn said at the time that MLC made the call back in 2005 to drive the industry to change the way it operates.
“We’ve led the industry in terms of making the advice industry more transparent, more professional,” he said.
“We didn’t just talk about it, the key thing is we acted on it. So we moved very early from conflicted payments to focus heavily on the quality of the advice we are providing our clients and the systems in process supporting that. I think that is what has driven these good [client engagement] results.”
Apogee Financial Planning general manager Fiona Navarro also said that the group’s success in acquiring new clients reflects the quality and client focus in the network over the past year.
“We have been working hard over a number of years, removing conflict and finding more opportunities to add value through advice and deeper client conversations,” she said.
“I firmly believe that demonstrating tangible value will be even more critical in the future and this award is meaningful because it is based on detailed feedback from potential clients.”
