The rapidly changing face of financial advice has left some licensees struggling to keep up with the needs and demands of the advisers they authorise. For some, the evolution of advice and an inability to adapt means their medium- or long-term prospects are potentially bleak. If the most valuable thing they offer to advisers is an AFSL, or a standard set of largely administrative services, they really don’t offer anything at all to set them apart.

As advisers’ needs and the needs of their clients change, licensees need to change to remain relevant and to add value to advisers’ businesses and to their advice. Clients of the future don’t necessarily look like the clients of the past, particularly as a wave of baby boomers approach the retirement shore. The advice support and the business services advisers will need to deliver doesn’t necessarily look like it did in the past, either.

When asked, most licensees say they’re adapting to the needs of advisers, but CoreData Research senior consultant Grahame Evans says the only people who really know if a licensee model is relevant and truly supportive of advisers are advisers themselves.