The key issue for advisers to focus on in the future will be winning the confidence and the trust of their potential clients in regard to the services they are providing, according to the head of a major wealth management organisation.
"Our view is the battlefield for the future consumer won't be so much around product, bells and whistles or pricing even - it will be more around whether they have the confidence and the trust in the services they are getting," MLC chief executive Steve Tucker said.
"So the challenge for the wealth management industry is to recognise that consumers need to have control, they need to understand what they're doing, and they need to be able to invest with confidence," he said.
To be able to achieve this, Tucker identified three areas that are crucial and require addressing immediately.
One of these is the role of the licensee.
"For quite a while now the role of the licensee has been twofold - in many cases to protect and give good advice to investors but also operating a distribution business," Tucker said.
In reviewing the situation, Tucker suggested rationalisation would probably be necessary along with a real need to ensure licensees are acting in the best interest of investors.
In addition, Tucker said access to financial advice needed to improve.
"Twenty per cent of Australians get advice and it's not true to say only 20 per cent want it. It is fair to say access to advice is too hard, it's too complicated, and we need to deal with that," he said.
The third item that needed addressing was remuneration, with Tucker reiterating the industry needed to move from commission-based structures.
