Diligently choosing advice over product as a professional

Advisers and financial planners can look forward to the Financial Planning Institute’s (FPI) upcoming Retirement and Investment Conference planned for September in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

This two day conference will focus specifically on the planning aspects of retirement and investments. Noel Maye, Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB based in the US), which is the standard setting body for Certified Financial Planners (CFP® professionals) worldwide, will be opening the conference with his presentation on financial planning as a global profession.

The tendency to confuse

The conference will focus on professional advice in the areas of retirement and investment planning, which is critical in light of a tendency to position product selling and delivery of financial product information to sell one or more products as financial advice.

This creates substantial opportunities for investors to be confused about what services they are in fact receiving and with what duty of care advisers have to advise. Practitioner experience, knowledge and competence will also be taken into account in these discussions.

The confusion can be contributed to the fact that over the years, advice has become a catch-all term with little distinction made between the competencies and focus of:

• Those selling products or providing information to sell products;
• Those providing limited scope advice (either limited to investment products or covering additional aspects of a client’s financial situation) that typically result in a solution that is a financial product; and
• Those offering holistic financial planning that use the goals, needs and objectives of a client to drive recommendations and develop financial strategies, which may or may not result in the recommendation of a financial product.

Crucial investment advice

During the first day of the conference, two previous FPI Financial Planners of the Year, Warren Ingram and Alec Riddle, will highlight the many pitfalls that can be avoided by actively reviewing a client’s retirement plan, while also illustrating the many benefits thereof.

Ideas will be shared on how to review investment strategies with clients, keep them calm in volatile conditions and ensure that they do not make irrational decisions at the wrong times.

CFP® professionals Kim Potgieter and Kate Holmes, from America, will bring a softer touch to the first day when they respectively share insights on life planning and how this creates a platform where clients are encouraged to talk about how they can get more meaning from their money in retirement.

Kate will share thoughts on how to service your clients in the digital age, the importance of the new generation and how to attract and build trust with new clients, regardless of where they are located, while creating a business and a life you love.

Best practice risk profiling

CFP® professional Gerda van der Linde will with best practice risk profiling in a highly regulated advisory world begin proceedings on day two.

This is followed by CFP® professional Paul Nixon who will be providing a brief journey, with supporting evidence, discovering our limitations in processing information, which is crucial when giving investment advice.

The risk theme continues when Roland Rousseau, currently an Active Member of the FTSE/JSE Index Advisory Committee, talks about risk management and who is responsible for managing clients’ investment risks.

Other top speakers to look forward to at the conference are, Professor Mathew Lester, a Member of The Davis Tax Committee (DTC), who will talk about the proposals regarding estate duty in South Africa which may have a profound effect on estate planning as we know it. Anne Cabot-Alletzhauser, who Heads up the Alexander Forbes Research Institute, will discuss what exactly adviser’s value-add is and why the investment value-add is not the central point that was alluded to.

Theo Vorster, Television Host and Economic Commentator will provide an update on the critical economic factors influencing our current economy.

By having this focused conference on knowledge and advice in the retirement and investment areas, the FPI hopes to start to eradicate the confusion between product and advice.