AFA education to knock salesman tag
Friday, 1 August 2008 12:10pm
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) finalised the first unit of the Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner program, an education course it hopes will reduce criticism of the financial advice industry.
Speaking at the AFA National Forum in Sydney, Richard Klipin, AFA chief executive, said the new program addressing three core areas including client engagement, risk skills and practice management.
He said the program would allow advisers to hone their skills, while at the same time rid itself of the ‘salesman' tag and enable the financial advice industry to develop as a profession.
"We don't call it sales skills because I think our profession undersells or undermines itself with that language. They're high listening skills, questioning skills and articulation skills to empathise with clients and help with them with their journey," he said.
"I certainly know when we sit down and talk with the regulator and others not in the industry, and they hear those (sales) words, you can see changes to their body language and the shutters go up, so I think we've got to look at that."
Risk insurance and financial advice practice management skills are also covered in the course which is expected to be launched at Sydney University next year. Asteron, along with PS 146, were announced as the education program's sponsors.
Michael Hobbs
