[GRTV] Peer support helps with compliance stress

GRTV talks to AIA chief distribution officer Sharron Botica about the second AIA wellbeing survey and what has changed since the first one.

Wednesday, April 10th 2024, 10:35AM

by Andrea Malcolm

When AIA commissioned a second round of research on the wellbeing of financial advisers in 2023, it expected three years post Covid and as people had moved through the regulation process, there would be more improvement than was the case.

But says Botica, stress and fear of not knowing how to navigate regulation compliance was still evident.

To ease that fear some advisers and adviser groups have started sharing their experience of FMA audit visits and also how best to prepare for them, if they should happen, she says.

In fact peer support between FAPs members themselves and from industry sector groups such as the Million Dollar Round Table, are proving helpful.

“Those advisers who are prepared to seek help, ask others and to network will generally receive it,” she says.

Although not as big as expected, overall advisers were more positive than previously. “When we first ran the research in 2021 some advisers were deciding about whether to stay in the industry. Now they’ve gone through that, they’ve all become part of

FAPs and all moved through their licensing and education pieces and so they’re more committed to the industry.”

However the cohort of younger, new entrants is struggling to navigate into a new industry and some of the requirements around competency and training.

Botica has spoken to the FMA about the research results, highlighting the findings and what advisers have been telling AIA about compliance and says the FMA wants to support advisers in this area. The regulator is also keen to engage with advisers around that regulatory returns due this year for all FAPs, she says.

“Some [advisers] are doing almost mock returns to get themselves prepared to see if there are any gaps. I hope they’re not waiting until the last minute.”

Where advisers are spending their time

Looking into the 2023 data, it was surprising how advisers are spending the bulk of their time, with 40% of time spent on admin and only 12% of time giving advice.

Botica says that hasn’t changed markedly from 2021 to 2023 but given advances through digitisation over the last few years, it is surprising.

She says providers also have to support advisers on this because some of that overhead comes from their processes and systems.

Looking at what else AIA is doing in the wellbeing space, it is running a peak performance programme which looks at advisers from a wellbeing perspective to set up their businesses for success. It is also rolling out a new revitalised Vitality app which Botica says has had engagement not only from advisers but their customers as well.