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James Mitchell
One in five brokers plan to make the leap into financial planning in the future.
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According to The Adviser’s latest straw poll, 20.8 per cent of respondents said they would look to diversify their core offering and make the move into financial planning.
Of the 284 respondents, 68 per cent said they would not make the transition from broker to financial planner, while 11.3 per cent were unsure.
Whether or not brokers should make the move into financial planning has been a hot topic of conversation over the past few months.
MFAA president Joe Sirianni said he supported the transition into financial planning and argued that tomorrow’s broker should work towards becoming an adviser.
“When you have a major association like the MFAA saying that the entire industry will change and will not look the same, that’s a line being drawn in the sand,” Wealth Today managing director Tony Pennells said.
Mr Pennells' company, Wealth Today, helps brokers make the switch into financial planning through further education and training.
“The future of the industry lies in moving towards advice,” he said.
“It is a move into an ongoing relationship with your client, not a transaction, where the loan is just the beginning of that relationship.”
Finance Made Easy's Tony Bice made the transition into financial planning in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since.
He said being a financial planner not only helped him retain his clients over the long term, but boost his bottom line as well.
"A financial planning book actually increases in value over time because as the client gets older, the trail increases. With a mortgage book, the trail goes the other way.”
But while some brokers are happy to make the transition into financial planning, the vast majority said they are not keen to change their business profile.
FirstPoint NB director Troy Phillips said mortgage broking and financial planning should be kept separate.
“I’m not saying no to the shift, but it’s not an answer to injecting more profit into the business – it’s injecting more compliance if anything,” he said.
“Just because it’s commission based doesn’t make it a good fit.”
