Centric Wealth anticipates its new professional advice standards will be adopted by external market participants, the dealer group’s chief executive has said.
“We do anticipate becoming a shining light for professional standards and professionally delivered advice. What I can tell you is that the number of inquiries from other firms and advisers have more than quadrupled in the last three or four months,” Centric Wealth chief John McMurdo said.
McMurdo said the Centric Wealth Professionalism in Financial Advice Standards, which the firm launched yesterday, were fundamentally important and were needed in the industry.
“We know that clients are demanding this, good advisers want it, the government is trying to move this way, and the regulators are endorsing these types of positions as are professional bodies including the FPA,” he said.
“What we want to do is really send a clear message that there is a professional option for people who do desire high-quality advice.”
The firm consulted with its advisers and clients directly and also turned to overseas models, McMurdo said.
“We have looked to other professions both domestically and internationally to understand the core tenets of professionalism more broadly and seek to understand how they can apply to wealth management in Australia,” he said.
The new standards differed to what the government was proposing within its Future of Financial Advice reforms, he said.
“We support any initiative that can increase the confidence of clients in financial advice across Australia. We have been and will continue to be strong supporters of those changes. I guess we in the firm see them as a minimum standard,” he said.
The standards encompass the FPA’s Code of Professional Conduct and cover areas such as education, ethics and governance.
