Future for Financial Advisers

Mr. Tan,

Can I say that the days of an insurance adviser is numbered because:

1) An insurance adviser is highly unlikely to transact several term a day as each plan will be for very long term. The adviser have to look for the next person for planning.

2) Commission is low especially for Term insurances. It is difficult and take a lot of time to plan and convince the next person to the Term insurance. The adviser eventually get paid peanuts for the vast amount of time taken.

3) Next comes the emergence of index funds which pay low sales charge and no wrap fees. Adviser may even not earn a single cent to introduce these funds.

4) There is also no guideline on how much an adviser is worth for his time and advice. If the public view an adviser time as $10/hour, how many hours must an adviser works to compensate for his business cost? Is it possible for him to get 10 customers a day in order to earn that $100/day. Is meeting that 10 customers day considered as efficient?

5) Financial planner is different from other professional such as doctors and lawyers. People look for them when they are seriously sick or need legal advice. People don't usually think they will need a Financial planner due to their low urgency towards financial planning.

Financial Advisers took great pains to gain hybrid knowledge ranging from Insurance, Investments, Tax, Estate, CPF, Retirement, etc. They also keep updated on all the changes and investment climate.

Do you think that it is fair that advisers should always get lower paid than other professionals?Should the public get all the advices for free and then buy the cheapest term insurance and ETFs and they pay peanuts to the agent?

In your opinion, do you think that if there are no proper framework protecting the advisers in term of compensation scheme, a too drastic change in the benefit towards the public will kill many good advisers which may subsequently result in more social problem?

REPLY

I am optimistic of the future for a new type of financial adviser who provides good value for the client. The client will look for a trusted financial adviser, just as a patient will look for a good and trusted doctor.

The consumer will pay a fair rate of remuneration for the advice and help in making the transaction. The adviser can earn a good level of income by working efficiently and spreading his remuneration over a large number of clients (i.e. keep the cost low for the customer).

Can the new model give a living for many financial advisers? I believe so. There are so many people that need good advice. Many advisers are needed to educate and give good advice to these people.

In the economy, we need many teachers, many doctors, many nurses, many preachers. They do good work to serve the entire population. We also need many financial advisers to do their good work.

Gong Xi Fa Cai.