Australians retiring in 2012 will provide business opportunities for financial advisers despite the past 12 months of volatile market conditions and endless regulatory change, an industry executive said.
Equity Trustees head of wealth management Phil Galagher said the 255,000 Australians that will retire next year will be a positive for advisers, despite changes to the Future of Financial Advice and Stronger Super reforms.
"If you accept that's the way the world will be in the future and look at what's happening in the marketplace beyond that, there are actually positives," Galagher said.
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of Australians turning 65 will rise every yearfor the next 17 years, culminating tin 312,000 people reaching retirement in 2028.
Galagher said advisers need to familiarise themselves with the spectrum of needs during certain ages in retirement.
"Usually there are two phases - the nomad phase where they're structuring everything around travelling Australia and then when they move into their 70s where they slow up a bit and require aged care," he said.
"If they aren't planned for, they become major events that need to be coped with."
Galagher said the financial services industry will experience a large client base that are already in retirement, compared to wealth accumulation for retirement.
"[This] represents essentially a brand new opportunity for them to focus their business on," he said.
"Most businesses until recent times have largely been focused on helping people plan for retirement rather than structuring them in retirement. It's a whole new clientele in many ways."
He said Equity Trustees have taken the approach of viewing retirement and beyond as important, if not more important, than approaching retirement in order to prepare for the significant boost in potential retired clients.
