In this episode, David Walter shares a clear-eyed perspective on the evolution and future of the financial advice industry. From the importance of client-first traits to systemic changes driven by regulation and demographic shifts, David offers actionable insights for professionals and clients alike.
In this episode, David Walter shares a clear-eyed perspective on the evolution and future of the financial advice industry. From the importance of client-first traits to systemic changes driven by regulation and demographic shifts, David offers actionable insights for professionals and clients alike.
You can Reach David:
dwalterandassociates.com.au
Key insights
The industry's shift toward higher standards and more qualified advisors has reduced supply but increased advice quality.
The impact of regulation, especially around professional qualifications, has significantly shaped the advisor landscape, decreasing from 30,000 to 14,000 professionals.
The importance of client-centric traits like listening more than explaining, and personal connection to build trust over the long term.
Opportunities in expanding advice access through industry funds by leveraging specialized, advisor-driven solutions.
The need for simplification in regulation and product offerings to better serve clients and encourage new entrants.
Demographic trends suggest a looming succession challenge and opportunities for ongoing involvement of experienced advisors.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and episode overview
00:38 - David Walter's background and podcast premise
01:14 - Inspiration behind "Boring But Effective"
02:40 - Reflection on 30 years in the industry
02:48 - Positive industry changes and regulatory impact
03:30 - Growth in superannuation and retirement planning
03:57 - The evolution of advice models and industry tiers
05:18 - Industry structure: big players, bank-backed platforms, industry funds
06:42 - Challenges faced by low-cost industry funds
08:50 - Decline in advisor numbers and generational transfer
09:28 - Qualification thresholds and industry exodus
10:23 - Advice cost inflation and client affordability
11:36 - Client service quality amidst regulatory changes
13:02 - Historical context of advice fees and product commissions
14:54 - The shift to fee-for-service models
15:23 - Industry product design and fee structures
16:16 - Industry consolidation and better advisors
16:49 - Industry's response to regulation and ethics
18:23 - Encouraging diversity in advice professions
19:39 - Traits of successful advisors: listening and relationship focus
20:38 - Building genuine client relationships
24:39 - Succession planning in advisory firms
28:07 - Historical perspective on longevity and the age pension
28:41 - Reflection on the Harbour Bridge story and infrastructure funding
30:44 - Public-private partnerships in infrastructure development
34:33 - Recommendations for industry improvement: simplifying advice access
35:00 - The role of regulation and product innovation
36:55 - Industry mindset: goals first, then products
37:39 - The danger of product-first advice culture
38:23 - Closing thoughts on advice quality and future directions
[0:11]
Welcome to the Priority Lane podcast. I'm your host Nigel Catt and today on the podcast we're joined by David Walter from D Walter & Associates. David started working in the financial advice industry in 1996 before launching his own business in 2019. David is a Carlton football club tragic and an avid supporter of local football and also hosts his own podcast show. David, welcome to the show.
[0:38]
Greetings Nigel, great to be here, thanks for the invite.
[0:42]
No problems at all, no problems at all. Now, tell me about your podcast.
[0:48]
So my little podcast is called Boring But Effective. It was sort of born out of what a lot of the stuff we do in the financial services industry is incredibly boring. But if we don't do it, we can't come up with the effective results that we do for our clients. So it's a bit of fun where I interview, well, pretty much anyone. There's industry experts and there's also people who are non-financial as well that we get to know and have a bit of a chat about because we can have a conversation with those people around what they do that is incredibly boring, but it makes the same with us. If they don't do it, they can't be effective. So that's a bit of fun around the Boring But Effective podcast.
[1:34]
Sounds great, sounds great. Well, that's an interesting point. We had coffee the other day and we had a good chat about the advisory industry. And it's interesting about your podcast calling it boring but effective. What actually led you to the finance industry in the first place?
[1:53]
Well, to be brutally honest, Nigel, I'd passed a year and a half of a science degree in three years and I'd run out of subjects to fail. And as luck would have it, I managed to get a gig in the office with a legal and general agent, insurance agent back in the day. And that was my grounding. That was a terrific grounding, a wonderful fella who really taught me the grounding around what this industry is all about. It's relationships and looking after the people that trust you with providing them with advice. And that's something that it's still key 30 odd years later. It's still a key core component of what I do.
[2:40]
Okay, well it is actually looking at this it is 30 years this year 96 to turn now so congratulations on making it 30 years. So what would you say okay so you've been in the industry for 30 years obviously there's good parts there's bad parts of the industry I guess what do you see as the good parts in the industry at this moment?
[3:02]
Well, there's a lot of change going on Nigel. One of the constants is change. And one of the big things we're looking at now is just the pure size of how the superannuation pot has grown in Australia. And the number of players that are all looking to how best service, not only the superfund members, but there is quite a financial gain there for firms who can do it right. We've got a retirement income covenant that's coming along at the moment, which is really putting the heat on superannuation funds to move beyond the accumulation phase of setting people up for retirement and actually looking after them right through to during their retirement with pension funds and the like.
[3:57]
The government's looking to have. They don't necessarily want people working through to 65 or 60 or 67 or whatever it might be to the age pension and then just taking all their superannuation out. They want some lifetime income goals looked after. That's the trick is how do get access to the advice at that point in time.
[4:24]
Right, okay, so it's basically, so obviously with the aging demographic in Australia, that's probably led to this. So does that mean your clients no longer finish up at 67 with you? They're ongoing now until whenever?
[4:40]
Well, yeah, that's kind of my role, Nigel, is it depends on when I first meet clients and bring them on board. It's really from that day until it's really the kids' problem is the distance of the advice that we provide. So it's not just, I will get you to retirement or we'll get you to the age pension age. It's a lifetime income strategy that we work with with these guys.
[5:07]
That can encompass the aged care down the track if poor health catches up with them. And there's a whole lot of, that's a whole different kettle of fish for probably a conversation for another day. But if we're looking at the superannuation industry as a whole, it's probably evolved into really, I reckon there's three tiers. So you've got your large players that are more advisor and client driven that have they're listed on the ASX and they behold them to only themselves and a couple of examples there would be sort of NetWealth and Hub24 and these guys that run the internet platform admin base for members. You've then got the former bank backed type platforms.
[6:04]
So back in the day you had the National Australia Bank purchased MLC and CBA purchased Colonial which then became Colonial First State. and Westpac were partners for many years and BT is still very much a Westpac type company and One Path and ANZ were in bed together until they sort of split and Insignia took over and Zurek took over and those guys there.
[6:33]
They had some in-house type assets that it wasn't quite as independent as it may have been. That doesn't mean there was anything wrong with them, but they weren't necessarily as independent or as client friendly as what the other guys were. And then you move on to the industry funds, which are, you know, the SeaBus, Australian Super and these really big type of funds that they're low cost.
[7:01]
They don't necessarily have all that many investment options. There's not really personal advice through them per se. It's very limited in what you can achieve. the insurance through there is not necessarily guaranteed renewable. So there's a number of different aspects and there's no right fix for every client. Everyone, I think, deserves the personal advice for their situation.
[7:30]
And sometimes that may well be. a low cost industry fund that works for you and leave it there for 10 years and then we'll have conversation about where you're up to.
[7:40]
Right, okay. so do you think there's a declining amount of independence in the industry?
[7:47]
Well, by sheer numbers, the financial advisor network has gone from around 30,000 a couple of years ago down to about 14. Yeah, so the actual access to professional advisors is halved. As your baby boomers start to come through and we've got this generational transfer of wealth about to happen, they're trying to get access to it. this is kind of where the...
[8:17]
The government is going with a lot of these people in industry funds that have got large balances. They probably need to be looked after and have a bit of protection there with some form of advice. And how they do that cost effectively with the vast number of people that are coming through who are going to be seeking this stuff. That's kind of what they're working out at the moment.
[8:40]
Right, okay. So that's a massive drop. So I've got down here, you mentioned about 30,000 down to 14,000 in about a two year period. What was a big driver of that? Was it increased regulation or were there other factors at play?
[8:59]
Yeah, so one of the fallouts of the Banking Royal Commission and financial services as a broader aspect of that was the change in really moving financial advice and financial advisor, the profession per se to more of a profession as opposed to a bit of an industry where it was kind of gray around what the qualifications were.
[9:28]
So back when I started, was if you could pass the accreditation on the insurance product disclosure statement or the PDS that if you had a good BDM, they probably gave you the answers there anyway. You're in. Way you go. Go and sign up some policyholders. that kind of changed the diploma of financial planning. And it's kind of grown from there where you...
[9:57]
the higher the education, it's really seen as more of a profession where you need that postgraduate or some form of uni degree to practice in the industry. And what we had was with that change, a lot of advisors who were on the wrong side of 55, so to speak, said, well, I don't think I need to go back to uni to...
[10:23]
to pass a course to keep doing the job I've been doing pretty well for 35 years. So it might be time for me to move on. And that's one of the big exodus that has happened and not dissimilar to a lot of other professional industries as well. There's been the introduction of a professional year. So it's kind of a one year of mentoring if you've got someone comes out of uni. And that can be a bit of a barrier for people as well. It's almost like the...
[10:51]
the old US system of an internship where when you get paid a little bit better in Australia for internships, but the modern, the millennials coming through these days, they don't necessarily see it as a stepping stone. They like some funds hitting their bank account. So that can make it tricky as well.
[11:12]
Okay, so how has that impacted on the client side of things? So we've got a reduced number, the number's been reduced by about 50 % plus higher qualifications, higher standards to get in there, then you've got the one-year professional year. It sounds like there's increased costs to supply these services, less service providers. What's the impact on the client side?
[11:36]
Well, I think you the nail on the head there, Nigel, that the cost to service clients has increased as all of this has hit home. Licensees copped as well with their cost to serve. There's the compensation scheme of last resort that's come in recently too that has an ASIC levy that is attached to it that we find out after the fact, Nigel. So we get a bill.
[12:05]
12 months after and you've got about three weeks to prepare to pay it. the cost of service is certainly a lot higher than what it used to be. And I guess the usual laws of supply and demand where if there's less supply and more demand that has an upward pressure on prices. So in my view, it is still...
[12:33]
It's still very affordable for the quality of advice that is available in the market. I guess people just have to do a bit more due diligence even if the availability is a little bit lower. Make sure they find someone they can trust, they believe will do the right thing for them and will provide them with fair value.
[12:56]
So, but do you see like, let's talk about last century when you first started with. Yes, yeah, you go back that far. I was gonna say, yeah, would there be like a client back then that would be able to access financial advice, but now would not be able to because it's just not a cost.
[13:27]
Well, it was very different scenario back then, Nigel. So a lot of the financial products back in the last century, if you go back 80s and 90s and that sort of stuff, they had built-in commissions. So there was no upfront advice fees, that sort of thing. People could still charge them, but there was a difference between an upfront fee or a deferred fee and all these sorts of things.
[13:57]
a little bit like the insurance commissions where it didn't necessarily impact on what the price people were paying for the advice. So insurance premiums didn't change irrespective of what the commissions paid on them were. But there was definitely a shift there between back in those days, people were, for want of a better term, they were railroaded into products that
[14:24]
there was the question there around whether something paying a high commission was getting more money because the advice was getting paid more or was it in the best interest of the client. So I think there was certainly some elements of gray area there around whether they were in the best interest for the clients. But I think the one constant with that stuff is the advisors that were around back then and were client first are still with us.
[14:54]
and are still doing client first advice. The difference now is there's no upfront fees, there's no built in fees and things like that in investment products and the like. It's all a direct fee for service type model and how people come up with that actual amount that varies. It can be hourly rate, it can be percentage of investment. None of that's really changed, but a lot of it I think is for the best.
[15:23]
when they first designed them, Nigel, they were more around how the property market works. So you had 5 % contribution fees to super funds back in the 80s, which is kind of mimic stamp duty. Stamp duty is still at 5 % and properties are significantly higher value these days. again, that's a topic for another day on how that goes into government coffers as opposed to advisors. you know.
[15:49]
Yep, yep. So I mean, that was, I remember those changes came in and the best, what's in the best interest of the client, as you said, was always meant to be the key point. So with the changes that came in, essentially the client first advisors have stuck around, the others after, you had other alternative motives maybe.
[16:22]
no doubt, no doubt that there were certainly a few bad apples that probably tainted the rest of the quality barrel of apples, so to speak. You know, there might've been, a few of us might've been tainted by that on the way through by association, but you can't sort of tidy that up without the industry as a whole.
[16:49]
having to ask a few questions and being asked a few questions and having to come up with some answers. So I think for the most part, the industry has responded really well. And the people who have the clients as their forefront will come out the other side and start to thrive again. And hopefully that will potentially put downward pressure on the cost of service and the fees charged for advice.
[17:19]
Okay, okay, so do you see, is there enough young advisors coming through the industry?
[17:27]
There's certainly starting to become, they're becoming more prevalent. mean, I think, I don't think there'll ever be enough in the next sort of decade to catch up. I mean, the rate that they're coming through is nowhere near what is needed. But if, but once all this sort of stuff stabilises and we know,
[17:55]
what the legislation is going to look like and what the cost of service actually settles down to be. Yeah, and I think the industry will again become even more attractive for people to come in and if they've got an interest in building relationships with clients and investing and making sure that they protect their wealth and that sort of stuff, that's, you know, it's always going to be a great industry to be in. I think the
[18:23]
The one key area I think we really need some growth in is some more female participation. So I think it's probably getting more 50-50 with new entrants. But I guarantee if you go to any sort of industry day, it'll be at most there'll be 25 % women in the room. So that's.
[18:48]
Okay, okay. But that is changing, as you said, that you think with a younger generation, that'll even look better.
[18:55]
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot more female participation from a BDM business sort of fund manager side of things. It's just a bit slower in the advisor, advisor space. know, 10 years ago, there'd be two or three in the room and it's certainly going in the right direction.
[19:19]
Well, I get like from what I picked up over over the our chat is that a lot of it talking about the person you have to be to be a good advisor. You've mentioned a couple of times client first client relationship. So what do you see as the personal traits that are important to be successful?
[19:39]
Well, it's an old one, Nigel. You've got two eyes, two ears, one mouth, and you probably should use them in that order. There's a lot to be said around just shutting up and letting clients tell you what they're trying to achieve. I think one of the traps in this industry is because there is so much knowledge behind what we have to do, and we've done all the boring stuff, as I mentioned earlier. There is...
[20:07]
There is the trap that we fall into of explaining to potential clients or even existing clients how clever we are and what we've all done for them. And they don't really care. They couldn't care less. They're more interested in catching up with what's actually going on with their life. So, know, is their son getting a kick on the weekend playing footy?
[20:33]
Did they make runs on the weekend? How'd the season finish up with the cricket? Once you absolutely get it right, within 18 months of people being ongoing service clients, they know exactly what they're getting, and you'll catch up for a one hour meeting, and about 55 minutes we'll be talking to them about them and their life and what's going on, and they'll probably wanna know what's going on in my life around more from a personal level.
[21:01]
and you'll spend about five minutes having a conversation about the actual investments. and that's... Yep. Yep. Absolutely.
[21:05]
Right, okay. So really is that personal touch? Yep. And you mentioned earlier about the transfer of wealth from the older generation to the new generation. How do you attract those people, the younger generation, into the industry as clients? And how do you maintain them? Is it the same approach?
[21:29]
So you're talking about sort of 30 year olds who are buying a house and that sort of stuff with lower super balances? that sort of the...
[21:39]
Yeah, okay. So part of that wealth transition as well is they're probably the next level. So if you put round figures on it, let's say the baby boomers are getting to 80 and 85 before they drop off the perch, their kids are 60 to 65. And then their kids are in their mid 30s. So it's, they're probably 20 odd years from that baby boomer wealth filtering through, but they're also earning income.
[22:08]
higher than anyone in the history of this country at that age. But they've got their own pressures of housing prices. So when their parents bought a house, was probably three times the average wage to buy a property. Now it's sort of eight to 10 to 12, depending on where you're looking. So they have those pressures. there's the personal insurance
[22:37]
side of things with those younger people. So if you've got someone sitting in front of you earning 250 grand a year at 35, you know, that's their biggest asset is the seven and half million they're going to earn over their lifetime between now and retirement. So if they walk out of the office and get hit by a bus and they can't work again, there's a lot of income there to protect. And just reinforcing that with these people at that point in time, how they go through paying their home loan off.
[23:07]
And then what's their actual goals? It depends on their actual occupation a lot of the time too. So, you know, if they're in an office and hanging around like us and the chance of an accident is probably significantly less or, you know, you break a rib falling off a chair or sneezing or something at our age, Nigel. It's not so much that they're going to...
[23:36]
breakdown and age out of their industry. you know, if you're a plumber or a chippy or someone doing a heavy manual labor type scenario, by the time you're 50, 55, you might be starting to have a few aches and pains you didn't want. So what we can do then is harness these higher incomes and hopefully get something for them to be able to utilize as they get through to before they can access their super at 60.
[24:06]
And really, so you kind of really bring the retirement income planning forward about 15 or 20 years with those guys. Yes, absolutely. Yep.
[24:14]
Right, okay. Okay, so it's protecting what they've got now and their future. Yep, okay. Okay. And on the other side of the equation, so we've talked about the younger generation coming through as clients. I read a report a month or so ago about the aging demographic of IFA firm owners. And I think in Australia, it's 55. I think in the UK, it's 58. So,
[24:39]
Is there talk about, like among your peers, succession planning, exits, how that looks, how this transition will occur?
[24:49]
Yeah, absolutely. It's always, it's rarely a PD day that goes by without you looking around the room and thinking, I wonder what they're planning on doing down the track. And there's always someone having a bit of a conversation around how do we do this? And that's the beauty of the dealer group that I'm, or our licensee is, it's very, very focused on not just the clients and the people we look after.
[25:18]
but being able to continue that under the one roof and having that trust and know that just because someone exits the industry as an advisor through retirement or whatever reason it might be, you're still going to be able to pick up the phone and have a conversation with them because just because they've left the industry doesn't mean they've left that 20 years of knowledge of those clients. That doesn't just evaporate. So there's actually a few, few fellows in our
[25:47]
group that have gone through the succession planning and those guys come back in every now and then once a week or once a fortnight just to keep their toe in so to speak. There's only so much golf you can play and I think from time to time, you know, they miss it. These were actually people that have been their friends and they've handed on to someone they know and trust to the point where these guys are happy to get them to come back in and
[26:17]
have a conversation and say good day when the annual review's on and do the admin work behind the scenes instead of doing all the, yeah, so they've gone full circle. They're doing the boring stuff and they're happy to do it now.
[26:30]
Yeah, well I've heard from a couple of people that retiring too early is about the worst thing you could do.
[26:38]
Uh, yes, well, it can, uh, it can certainly impact on, uh, on the psyche. If you, if you haven't trained, it's more about the planning Nigel. If you, if you haven't planned what you're going to do, just chopping off that 40 or 50 hours a week where you, you've got a purpose and someone's expecting you to do, uh, to be somewhere and do something during that time. So all of a sudden then, you know, the alarm got, the alarm doesn't go off at seven o'clock anymore.
[27:08]
Hmm, yeah.
[27:08]
Um, and, uh, you know, there's only so many, so many things you can do. And, um, if you haven't planned for that and haven't decided what the next steps are going to be, um, that, that to me again, yeah, you're right. It is, it is very problematic and reminds me of the, the old days of when the, the age pension used to be, um, age 60 and they moved it to 65. Cause a lot of so many golden handshakes back in those days that
[27:38]
They only lasted six to 12 months and that was it. That was the life expectancy. yeah, now we've got 67 for the age pension because people are living longer. The health system has certainly changed our longevity immeasurably.
[28:07]
Yeah, well, I think I read somewhere as well ago when the age pension first came in, it was back in the 30s or something, or it was, and as you said, it was only 12 month life expectancy past then. So pension only had to do you 12 months and that was it.
[28:24]
That's right. Exactly right. Yeah. And that was, it was age 60 for women. And then the actuarial tables came out and went, well, women are living a lot longer than men. We might've got this wrong.
[28:41]
Now, as you know, David, each episode we delve into history. We do a quick historical look at an event which happened in the month that we're currently in, which happened to be March. So today we're going to look back at the Harbour Bridge. You're probably familiar with the Harbour Bridge. Yep, yep. That's the one. Well, we're actually recording this on the 19th of March. So it was 19th of March, 1932 when it first opened.
[28:57]
The big coat hanger up there in Sydney? Yes, I've seen it, yeah.
[29:08]
But a bit of background on it for you. So, okay, so the first serious proposal for the bridge was made by Peter Henderson in 1857. So took a while to get this across the line. In 1878, it was estimated the bridge would cost £1.2 million, far too expensive. So they put it on hold. 1900, the New South Wales government put out a call for designers and tenders for the bridge, but at almost £2 million, it was still too expensive.
[29:33]
Then in 1912, John Bradfield was appointed the chief engineer, made a renewed push for the bridge, but again, couldn't be built this time because of World War I. November 22, the Sydney Hubbard Bridge Act was finally passed by the New South Wales Government and the construction for the bridge began on the 26th of March 1924. Eight years after construction began, it was open to the public on the first time, 19th of March 1932. So the bridge cost a
[30:02]
approximately 6.25 million Australian pounds to build, construction spanning from 24 to 32 when accounting for land resumptions and interest, total cost reached over 10 million pounds. The debt for the bridge was not fully paid off till 1988. Now, well, things haven't changed much. Here in Victoria, we've been talking about the airport rail link for about 50 years as well. How do you see the private wealth industry?
[30:32]
Is there a way where these major projects can be funded better or more efficiently or what part can the finance industry play instead of just relying on the government coffers?
[30:44]
Yeah, it's a really interesting question, Nigel. I think back in the 90s, we probably had the first iteration of this sort of stuff in Victoria with Transurban and the CityLink that was built and the Kennet government at the time with the tolls and saying we needed private money to be able to get these things done. We can't afford it as a state. So that was probably one of the first real well-known joint ventures that
[31:13]
between private and public money to build some massive infrastructure. I think it's a lot to do with the infrastructure. Where you actually get it from in Australia is very, I think it's pretty limited in respect to, we probably need to go international to find the actual amounts of funding we need to do and from a better...
[31:43]
from for one of a better way to look at it you're looking at someone who has experience in this stuff and knows what they're doing and from a portfolio perspective it might make up five or ten percent of what they actually do overall as opposed to you know you're probably looking at 50 percent or higher for an Australian company to do and that's a big bet to have on one one thing and making sure that's profitable and
[32:11]
Yeah, because the margins are pretty tight. And the argument around Australia has always been to the population Nigel. mean, we're talking about a train linked to from the CBD to Tullamoreen and there's other cities around Australia have them and apparently they work really well. There's been the talk of the very fast train from Sydney to between Sydney and Melbourne, the bullet trains that they have in China and Japan and those sort of things and that
[32:40]
that's probably been going on for longer than the airport rail. And you know, there's people say, it's a bit of field of dreams. If we build it, they will come. And others are saying, well, we've done the numbers and unless we've got a hundred million as our population, it's not going to work. So I think that's just a debate that people throw up from time to time. If it happens, great. It's a good conversation starter, but I think the we've actually
[33:09]
made some progress with the Melbourne airport rail link. yeah, not dissimilar timeline to the Harbour Bridge either. that, yeah, what's that? That's 75 years or so from concept to open. That could be a similar timeframe for our training. But one anecdote that I love about the Harbour Bridge, Nigel, is...
[33:38]
There's a film called Charlie and Boots with the famous Aussie actors, Jane Jacobson and Paul Hogan. Yeah, yeah. in that, towards the end of that movie, they're actually driving over the bridge and Hogan looks up and said, geez, how would you go painting it? And the story behind that was he was actually a rigger who did paint the Harvard Bridge back in the day.
[34:07]
That's a, if you have a chance to have look at that, it's a good movie. Good fun.
[34:11]
I will do, I will do. Now just before you go, it's been a pleasure having you on. Your industry knowledge is astounding. What would you like to see for the industry? If you had your way, would there be regulatory changes or what changes would you make in the industry that you would see would be a benefit for everyone?
[34:33]
I think, in all honesty, Nigel, I think the access to advice, we need to simplify things. A lot of the things that I see that is going on from a higher level and a product type scenario is all about keeping hands on the pie. And there's a lot of people coming up with solutions to problems that don't exist. The solutions are already there. We don't need more products.
[35:00]
we actually need more advisors to actually provide the advice to clients. And I think we've got that right with the level of education and the regulatory arrangements around how that works. And yeah, just have it more streamlined. know, industry funds, they're not too sure on how they're going to go around the advice stuff. I think they were a concerned about what happened with bank type.
[35:28]
advice and how do they do that when it's their badge thing and if you then go into personal advice is it always going to be the right product for the customer so they lose their money anyway so they're sort of hedging their bets a bit. just think that if they they bit the bullet and went down the advice path and actually had it might be up to them to bring in a separate type of
[35:56]
product that is an advised one as opposed to the industry one. And that might fix a whole lot of problems for them. And if they have, you know, they might have to employ 500 to a thousand planners across that industry fund banner, so to speak, to really help those guys out, then that might be what they need to do. Us little fellas out in the burbs that are here to help.
[36:25]
the mums and dads and the small business owners and the like will always be here and will certainly always look after our clients needs and find the best solutions for them. But from an industry perspective, I think there's just so many moving parts that if we just stop for a second, take a breath and say, what is it that we actually need to do? Stop trying to create things that aren't necessary.
[36:55]
because they're making a mix match of things that are that already exist under a product banner. mean, if you the product comes last, that's that's my view. You get you get the you get the goals right. You know where you're going, what you're trying to achieve. And then the product part will look after itself when it comes to fees and features and benefits and all that sort of jazz and matching them up. That that
[37:23]
that'll look after itself. But I think a lot of the industry type funds are product first and then how do we jam the client into them understanding that being with our product is the best. It's kind of back to front for mine. Not to say that industry funds do a great job and they definitely have their place, but one of the things, one of the big mistakes I think we actually made and industry funds and banks kind of led with it was
[37:52]
Let's give 30 year olds an app on their phone so they can change the investment options on their super. Why? Why would they do that?
[38:07]
Well, you know, we've just had a war in Iran. How many, how many people out there in their 30s have said, share markets gone down, I better put my super into cash.
[38:17]
Even though you've got a 30 year time frame.
[38:23]
That's where advice comes in, my good man.
[38:25]
Yep. Yep. And on that note, David, we'll wrap it up there. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the podcast.
[38:32]
Thanks so much, Nigel. Yeah, my pleasure. Good to see you.
[38:35]
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We'll catch up for coffee again. And once again, it was, have I got it right? The Boring But Effective Podcast.
[38:41]
Boring but effective, that's it.
[38:43]
Okay, great. We'll put a link on there at the end of at the end of this as well as your contact details as well. So thank you very much for coming on.
[38:53]
Thank you.
[38:54]
And for everyone else, look, thank you very much for listening in and stay tuned for the next episode of the Priority Lane podcast. Thank you.