Financial advisers are under increasing pressure to communicate and demonstrate their value in the client-adviser relationship. Advisers must have answers to the increasingly difficult or common question such Why should I work with a financial adviser versus should I just go with a do-it-myself approach. Various models have been used to measure the impact of various adviser services on a clients financial outcomes. Given the complexity of a financial advisers role, many have struggled to measure the effectiveness of financial advisers.

You are in an initial meeting with a potential new client and you have just explained the process of developing advice and then presenting it as a Statement of Advice. You paid particular attention to the need to conduct a data gathering process with the client in order to gain a detailed understanding of their objectives and financial position. At that point in the discussion, you noticed that the client seemed somewhat uneasy squirming in the chair a little, a slight grimace emerging in the facial expression. At the end of the explanation the potential client said, Well, look, I just want you to give me some advice on what do with my superannuation when I retire next year. I dont need all that other stuff like insurance and wills. I just want to know what to do with my super.

a) Explain what you would do in this situation. What would you say to the potential client and what might you offer to do? Would you accept such instructions from this person? If not, why?

b) You are a Compliance Manager for a licensee which has 12 authorised representatives. You have just been notified that a complaint has been made against one of the authorised representatives by a former client. The representative works from an office remote from head office and, on your last audit inspection visit nine months ago, you found that some of the representatives files were not in order.

The basis of the former clients complaint is that they believe they were not advised that their adviser would be charging ongoing fees from their portfolio. You now plan to conduct an audit visit, without notice, at the representatives office.

What will you be looking for at the representatives office in order that you can prepare an initial response to the complainant?