Speaking to InvestorDaily, Mr Spiers pointed to three factors that are “changing the face of advice” in Australia.
“One is the emergence of accountants, two is the converging roles as people ‘team’ in practices (the risk specialists, the accountants, and the financial planners), and the third one is the continuing growth of women in the profession,” he said.
However, when it comes to the convergence of advice and mortgage broking and advice, Mr Spiers said it was a trend that is “still there” but is “not strong”.
“It’s almost a bridge too far for a person who is accredited to advise or sell mortgages to move into financial planning,” he said.
But that said, mortgage brokers can still work very well with financial planners and accountants on a referral basis, added Mr Spiers.
“It can be a bridge too far [for mortgage brokers] because of the training requirements to be a financial planner,” he said.
“If you’re an accountant you’re already highly credited and highly authorised – particularly with the [accountants'] exemption [until it is removed on] 1 July 16,” said Mr Spiers.
When it comes to professionals “clustering around the client”, models including financial planners, accountants and risk specialists continue to prevail, he said.
Mr Spiers also highlighted the increasing number of women within BT, with 35 per cent of new advisers in BT's bank planning channel female.
“Over time we’ve had a goal to build that to 50 per cent,” he added.
According to the most recent numbers from the Financial Planning Association, there are 16,500 planners in the market with approximately 13,200 male and 3,300 female.
