Assistance for advisers available
The Adviser Platform (TAP) is encouraging advisers to complete their licensing via its Financial Advice Provider application management service, with more than 20 already approved.
Eighty per cent (80%) of approved Financial Advice Provider holders have voluntarily enrolled in TAP’s monthly compliance subscription service which provides scheduled advice auditing, governance, and oversight throughout the year.
“Compliance is a broad area for people to focus on. We know it’s about implementing a lot of systems and processes,” TAP managing director Ryan Edwards (pictured) said.
“We work hard to provide the scaffolding and clear processes for advisers to follow so they have confidence that all of their hard work gets documented consistently.”
Edwards said TAP had further developed its compliance reporting tools, including new vs replacement business, internal vs external replacement, tracking vulnerable clients, trends in complaints, and greater visibility over annual reviews and ongoing servicing requirements.
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“Advisers should be having a compliant process in place rather than a process that they try and make compliant,” Edwards said.
“We work with advisers to help with the external oversight discussion, something that is new to a lot of advisers.”
Edwards said it was hard for advisers to run a business and manage a home and family life.
“It is a challenging time to be an adviser, especially going through a once-in-a-decade regulatory change off the back of a pandemic with lots of noise and misinformation,” he added.
TAP aimed to assist advisers by providing support and services to those in need throughout the preparation phase.
“TAP wanted to come to market with a product providing admin support, hands-on compliance support, building and refining tools to deliver a fantastic advice process without the challenge for an adviser to shift their business over a three- to four-year period,” Edwards said.
“We want to get out there and be talking to advisers and providing options and assistance. Asking business owners what their plans are? Where are they struggling? Where can they double down and thrive in this new adapting market?”
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Edwards said advisers needed to show they were taking their obligations seriously, and an audit was a good tool to find out what areas of their business were working and what areas required improvements.
“There still seems to be a lot of people who are genuinely struggling and concerned about how they will navigate this new regime,” he noted. “With the right services, advisers can and should be running their own FAP with confidence and focusing on growing and servicing their clients.”
