2019 brought considerable change in wealth management in Australia. There was the Royal Commission findings earlier in the year, and from that there has been a wave of changing landscape impacting almost all aspects of the industry, the general themes being about servicing clients fairly without conflict and in their best interests.
2020 is likely to continue the theme of this change, which in many ways has now moved into a new gear of settling down these issues as to what they mean and bringing definition as to what does best practice look like.
My sense that some of the key areas for 2020 that we will see some definition and growth in that build on 2019:
- Increased education, not only to the new professional standards, but broader as to what this means in terms of business models and business operations
- Better definition of what is, and what is ‘acceptable’ around conflicts of interests, especially in relation to brokerage commissions and related party products and services
- Increased challenge for the promotion of products and services by third parties to consumers
- Increased awareness as to what differentiates professionals in serving their clients and how to stand out in a crowded market
- Innovation in the way that consumers and the wealth management industry and regulators engage
At Financial Simplicity we are well positioned to help firms deal with the items above in considering overall business strategy, operational models and technology driven capabilities to align such.
