Friday, August 05, 2011

E is for Advice


E was the letter of the day in this session discussing advice as a profession, which was defined by three e's: education, experience and ethics (which probably should be first).

Industry or profession; a quick straw poll showed that all in the room think financial planning should be a profession, but the FPA's Mark Rantall states you can't just call yourself a profession without backing it up, and with 50% free-riders enjoying the benefits of a professional body without signing up.

Mark says he sees financial planning as the second most important profession behind medicine - health first and finances a close and important second. But Brian Bissaker points out though that this is not necessarily recognized by the wider community.

What is the framework that we need to be a profession? It's threefold:
  • Professional membership 
  • Professional conduct 
  • Professional accountability

Greg Medcraft agreed that in developing this (e)Framework we need to strike a balance between self regulation and legislation.

However, the scale of legislative change facing planners is enormous: banning commissions, banning volume rebates, increased education standards and stronger super among others, and while Bissaker believes this legislation will push us (as an industry) toward professionalism, the risk is that the scope and cost involved of all these reforms will make advice more expensive, and put it out of reach for everyday Australians.

Simply put it's all about doing the right thing - that is the hallmark of a profession.

And the goal of all this: give all Australians access to high quality advice.

It's as simple as eee.

For up to the minute news from FSC sessions follow us on Twitter: @carden, @p_cheal, @BlueChip_Comm

BlueChip Communication's Bruce Madden, Carden Calder and Paul Cheal are attending the Financial Services Council annual conference on the Gold Coast. 

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