As advisers need to become more and more specialised, there are gaps waiting to be filled. Most advisers cover off what you would consider the "hygiene" factors of planning being superannuation, life insurance, income protection insurance, retirement planning, savings and investment wealth strategies and doing all these tax effectively.
However, there are nuances to each of these elements - for example, a life insurance adviser may have a better medical knowledge of what is acceptable for certain underwriters as opposed to an investment adviser (who provide life insurance as an adjunct to their core investment planning business). An accountant may be better at structuring investments more tax effectively than a planner who has limited tax knowledge. Or an adviser may want to concentrate their wares on servicing a type of profession, demographic or gender.
It's important for advisers to start becoming more and more specialised - finding niches within the top core of planning "musts" or finding markets or areas of advice that are currently underserviced.
Adviser Ratings is building up this history of adviser's experience and skillsets by demographic, geography and customer type - in a bid to truly become more attractive to not only a particular type of customer but also to licensees looking to fill gaps in their advice offering.
Graph of key skillsets of 4,000+ advisers across Australia, Source: Adviser Ratings Research
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Comments6
"The fundamental here is the planners must become more specialised. I disagree. The most useful role for a planner is as a strategist developing high level strategists for clients in which all a clients needs are identified and addressed. The strategist then co-ordinates the specialists providing the required services whether they be risk protection, estate planning, portfolio construction, SMSF's etc. There is a role for specialists; to provide services specified by the strategist. The strategist's most essential attributes are vision, integrity, people management and the ability to work with other service providers. I suspect this is the type of adviser that Suzanne is looking for! "
KenM 15:36 on 05 Oct 16
"I agree that there are specialties within the financial planning world, but the term 'niche' is so over used! Ask an adviser and they will tell you they are an expert in everything..."
Chris 15:00 on 05 Oct 16
"If that graph is right there is a gap in aged care and small business advice that needs plugging."
Old Business 14:23 on 05 Oct 16
"How can so many advisers specialise in building super, when most of Australia ignores their super (according to the news anyway)? #diversify!"
Ben 14:14 on 05 Oct 16
"How do I strike the right balance between finding an adviser who suits our needs and making sure we are getting the best advice in every category? Are there some advice firms that draw on mixed experience across the office - rather than assigning you to just one adviser? Confused..."
Suzanne 14:13 on 05 Oct 16
"I agree with home loans to soften the life insurance blow - selling a $500k home loan with a broker in our office gets us $3k in revenue and $750 every year thereafter. I'm currently do a diploma in mortgage broking and it makes sense to offer this to your advice clients as well. There's far more work in providing a statement of advice or having your client go through the medicals for a good life insurance offering"
Felix Dorst 12:51 on 05 Oct 16