BUSINESS WATCH WITH MICHAEL AVERY
WATCH: Financial advice beyond 2022
Michael Avery talks to Debra Slabber, Craig Gradidge, Maya Fisher-French and Gareth Stobie about the substantial changes to the investment industry over the past decade
Over the past decade the landscape for financial advisers and the customers they serve has changed substantially, mainly as a result of regulation that seeks to ensure consumers getter a better, fairer and more transparent deal.
The focus has been on being able to access financial advice through clear and simple rules:
- Introducing a best-interest statutory duty, which requires financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients;
- Introducing a requirement to obtain a client agreement to ongoing advice fees and fees for related services; and
- Banning conflicted remuneration including commissions, volume payments and soft benefits, and making clear distinctions between tied and independent advisers
Retail investors are now also using platforms and apps such as EasyEquities that have lowered the barriers to investing on the stock market, while the rise of low-cost indexing has upended the industry.
In discussing these issues, Michael Avery is joined by Debra Slabber, portfolio specialist director at Morningstar Investment Management; Craig Gradidge, investment and retirement planning specialist at Gradidge Mahura Investments; Maya Fisher-French, a personal finance writer, TV presenter and author; as well as Gareth Stobie, MD of CoreShares