Fiona Reynolds
Fiona Reynolds, CEO of the Principles for Responsible Investment, is leaving in January to become CEO of Conexus Financial, Australia s largest independent financial media organization.
Her new mandate with Conexus Financial will involve guiding the Australian investment industry to global best practice in sustainability, governance, retirement income policy and financial advice.
Ms. Reynolds has led PRI for nine years at a critical period of growth for sustainable investment. Under her leadership, the U.N.-supported network of investors has grown to more than 4,000 signatories with a collective $121 trillion in assets under management.
Now based in London, Ms. Reynolds will relocate to Sydney.
“There is very little knowledge on what the career path is. They’ll ask ‘what do I look for when I gradate? Do I look for junior or associate financial planner?’ And some of the financial planning requirements need five to eight years of experience.
“They’re probably not even aware of client administration and paraplanning roles. There’s not a defined career path that students would readily look at to work out what to apply for.”
Olynyk said the financial advice and superannuation industry had a leading role to play in developing graduate programs and internships that were structured so that students had a better idea of what to look for.
“In our engagements with trustees we have made it clear that their role is not to obtain or second guess each piece of advice. Rather, we think in some instances it is appropriate for trustees to check some services were provided so that the trustee can meet their legal obligation to ensure that only amounts that meet the advice requirements are deducted from member accounts. Citing an SOA is only one way of assisting in this respect,” she said.
“There is no expectation that trustees obtain every copy of SOA produced nor related docs or that individual pieces of advice should be reviewed for quality, value or appropriateness.
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Superannuation members have no connection with the word “advice” and funds need to simplify their language to engage members, according to Cbus Super.
Speaking at the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) Super Financial Advice Symposium, Cbus head of advice, Lynda Cross, said super members did not have a good understanding of what ‘advice’ meant.
“An example of that is we gave members an opportunity to choose ‘advice’ on our IVR ]interactive voice response] and what we discovered was that around 35% of people that selected advice actually needed help with the fund or needed some information,” Cross said.
“We know the word ‘advice’ might not be the right way to engage them if we’re asking them to start getting help or guidance from us around retirement.