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Special edition: 2024 Top Advisers list · The Money Puzzle

0:13
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Australian's Money Puzzle podcast. I'm
0:16
Speaker 1: James Kirby, Wealth Editor at The Australian. Welcome aboard, everybody.
0:21
Speaker 1: It's one of my favourite shows of the year. It's
0:22
Speaker 1: the release of the top financial advisors list, which we've
0:27
Speaker 1: been doing every year, a modest total of 50 advisors.
0:31
Speaker 1: It is now expanded this year, this morning, out this morning,
0:35
Speaker 1: to 150 advisors, the top 150 advisors list. in the market.
0:40
Speaker 1: And it's quite the enterprise. It's produced in conjunction with
0:43
Speaker 1: the Barron's Investment Magazine of New York. And actually, they
0:47
Speaker 1: do all the calculations. So all I have to do,
0:50
Speaker 1: in tandem with the deal editor of the deal magazine,
0:55
Speaker 1: which is where you'll find the list, or you can
0:57
Speaker 1: find it online, Helen Trinker puts it all together. And
1:01
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people on the list at
1:04
Speaker 1: this stage. And some of them, of course, have been
1:06
Speaker 1: on the Money Puzzle So I want to actually today
1:10
Speaker 1: give you a really good guide about financial advice, about
1:13
Speaker 1: how it works, how to find it, and the landscape
1:16
Speaker 1: within it. Just before I do, one thing I want
1:18
Speaker 1: to mention. Lots of response to the episode about big
1:23
Speaker 1: super funds behaving badly. And part of that was triggered
1:27
Speaker 1: by your own correspondence with me where you had issues
1:32
Speaker 1: about having trouble with big super funds and how they
1:35
Speaker 1: dealt with you. If you have, let us know. themoneypuzzle
1:39
Speaker 1: at theaustralian.com.au. Send in those emails. I'd like to see them.
1:45
Speaker 1: And we can actually, we can get a response much
1:48
Speaker 1: faster than you can get a response. Let's put it
1:50
Speaker 1: that way. Okay, now to join me today, I have
1:54
Speaker 1: an advisor who's actually been one of the handful of
1:57
Speaker 1: advisors who's been on this top advisors list since the
2:01
Speaker 1: day we launched in 2017. His name is Will Hamilton.
2:05
Speaker 1: He is at Hamilton Wealth Partners, regular on the show.
2:08
Speaker 1: How are you, Will?
2:10
Speaker 2: Very well, thank you, James, and thanks for having me.
2:13
Speaker 1: Good to have you. Good to have you. So, every
2:16
Speaker 1: year since 2017, feeling the pressure, are you?
2:20
Speaker 2: No, it's an honour, to be honest, to be honoured.
2:24
Speaker 2: But these things are a team effort. We've got a
2:26
Speaker 2: great team here.
2:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I tell you what, putting out a list
2:29
Speaker 1: of 150 advisors is a team effort. especially these days
2:34
Speaker 1: when you have print and digital and podcasts and a
2:38
Speaker 1: joint venture with a New York publication. I can tell
2:41
Speaker 1: you it's no easy task. And I'm happy to say
2:44
Speaker 1: it seems to be out there, all bells ringing today.
2:49
Speaker 1: So that was really good. There's a couple of things
2:51
Speaker 1: I want to talk about. And the listeners will be
2:54
Speaker 1: coming in at various angles. Some of them will know
2:57
Speaker 1: advice all too well. Some of them might never have started.
3:01
Speaker 1: If I know nothing and I go on to Google,
3:05
Speaker 1: which is what most people do to start anything, and
3:07
Speaker 1: they say, how do I find a financial advisor? The
3:10
Speaker 1: first thing I'm going to get is five or six
3:13
Speaker 1: people selling services. That's the first thing I'm going to see,
3:16
Speaker 1: because they're sponsored. And then I'm going to see various sites.
3:20
Speaker 1: But I think generally, at the very start, people should perhaps...
3:23
Speaker 1: If you know nothing at all, start with Money Smart,
3:25
Speaker 1: which is often where people should start, the ASIC website.
3:29
Speaker 1: That is just to check. That's just to check whether
3:32
Speaker 1: the advisor that your friend at the barbecue said was great,
3:34
Speaker 1: whether they're actually registered, and whether they basically tick the
3:38
Speaker 1: elementary boxes. And then I would hope the people on
3:42
Speaker 1: the show would be a bit more advanced than that.
3:44
Speaker 1: And perhaps for a start, they could look at this list.
3:47
Speaker 1: There's 150 names there. And that is quite a list
3:50
Speaker 1: from all around the nation now. But one thing that
3:53
Speaker 1: struck me, Will, like almost straight away was the whole
3:58
Speaker 1: game is moving upmarket. That financial advice, I mean, in
4:03
Speaker 1: a way, would always be an upmarket activity. But in Australia,
4:07
Speaker 1: because it costs so much to do it, I saw
4:09
Speaker 1: a survey during the week that said 50%, 50% of
4:11
Speaker 1: the fee for your financial advice is administration costs. So
4:17
Speaker 1: it seems like the whole thing is moving upmarket, but
4:19
Speaker 1: it seems that it's seriously moving upmarket now. It really
4:22
Speaker 1: is starting to be the companies that are on the list,
4:26
Speaker 1: even the brands that are on the list, if they
4:28
Speaker 1: have multiple arms, it's the upmarket arm of their advice
4:32
Speaker 1: activity that gets the ratings, basically. So is that what's happening?
4:39
Speaker 2: Look, I'm not going to mention names, but some of
4:42
Speaker 2: the larger firms have pushed right up to a minimum
4:45
Speaker 2: of $ 5 million. And yeah... That's a commercial call on
4:48
Speaker 2: their part. It's, in many cases, that decision's been made
4:51
Speaker 2: in Hong Kong or New York or something like that.
4:55
Speaker 2: And yeah, they're good firms, but that's, you know, so
4:57
Speaker 2: when you talk about, has it gone up market? Yeah,
5:01
Speaker 2: some of those firms have done that. You know, we
5:04
Speaker 2: are wholesale only, so we have to meet the sophisticated
5:07
Speaker 2: investor test with any client. We will take less, but
5:09
Speaker 2: we also have a minimum that we think's important that
5:12
Speaker 2: we can grow it to that. Now, that's a commercial
5:14
Speaker 2: decision as well. And You need to look at the
5:18
Speaker 2: overall revenue you can bring in and the cost to
5:21
Speaker 2: service that client. But you are right. Like, we don't
5:25
Speaker 2: like to say no to any client. And if we
5:27
Speaker 2: can't service them, we like to introduce them to a
5:31
Speaker 2: firm that can look after them. And we've been working
5:34
Speaker 2: very closely with a firm for about a decade, but
5:36
Speaker 2: they've even moved up.
5:38
Speaker 1: Yes.
5:39
Speaker 2: So we've sort of had to go and source another
5:42
Speaker 2: firm in the retail space. where they can look after
5:45
Speaker 2: retail clients and some of those smaller ones, because it's important,
5:49
Speaker 2: as you said, go on Google and then send something
5:52
Speaker 2: through your website. But we want to make sure that
5:54
Speaker 2: we can point them in the right direction, even if
5:56
Speaker 2: we're not right for them.
5:58
Speaker 1: And I see that there's variations around this, but in
6:01
Speaker 1: terms of what you might expect to pay ongoing annually
6:05
Speaker 1: for financial advice, we're looking at something in the order
6:09
Speaker 1: of four and a half to five and a half
6:12
Speaker 1: thousand a year on average. Now, that's a lot. You
6:15
Speaker 1: want to be making lots of money, basically, for that.
6:18
Speaker 1: So one thing I wanted to just put to you, Will,
6:20
Speaker 1: before we talk about the landscape out there for top
6:24
Speaker 1: advisors or for very good advisors, for listeners who just
6:29
Speaker 1: want to get started, it seems to me there was
6:31
Speaker 1: two sort of promises about, if we take it that
6:34
Speaker 1: the whole financial advice market has moved upscale, to the
6:39
Speaker 1: upper end of the mass affluent. And you mentioned how
6:42
Speaker 1: you're wholesale and a number on the list are wholesale.
6:45
Speaker 1: But the majority aren't, by the way, for what it's worth, folks,
6:47
Speaker 1: the majority are not wholesale only. By that, you must
6:50
Speaker 1: be a sophisticated investor. You must have 2.5 million in
6:54
Speaker 1: net assets. But the promise for everyday investors or starter
7:00
Speaker 1: investors was that there was going to be sort of
7:02
Speaker 1: two things that might save the day. One was digital advice, DigiAdvice,
7:06
Speaker 1: and the other was that the big super funds would
7:09
Speaker 1: come in and offer advice of a type. Now, on
7:13
Speaker 1: the DigiAdvice side, that really never came to pass. It
7:17
Speaker 1: certainly didn't come to pass in our market in any way.
7:20
Speaker 1: I know there's StockSpot, which has, of course, now owned
7:24
Speaker 1: by the big Murray Korean fund, and they are DigiAdvice specialists,
7:28
Speaker 1: but it didn't really take off, did it?
7:33
Speaker 2: Look, that's a really good point. I was at the
7:36
Speaker 2: Future Proof Conference in Los Angeles a few months ago,
7:40
Speaker 2: and they had this panel of female advisors, actually, and
7:44
Speaker 2: talking to them, look back five years, and what was
7:48
Speaker 2: being pushed five years ago versus, you know, and what
7:52
Speaker 2: hasn't taken off. And they said there were two things.
7:56
Speaker 2: One was ESG. Now, I know this is in America.
7:59
Speaker 2: And the second one was exactly that, online... be it DigiAdvice,
8:04
Speaker 2: be it online platforms for investing.
8:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, low-cost, low-touch financial advice. So it's come through a
8:12
Speaker 1: little bit, but it hasn't come through in a sort
8:14
Speaker 1: of mass fashion that was expected. And the other part
8:18
Speaker 1: was the big superannuation funds. Now, the big superannuation funds,
8:22
Speaker 1: their efforts to enter financial advice, you might say on
8:25
Speaker 1: their terms, has stalled in Parliament. And the big issue is,
8:31
Speaker 1: is that they want, as they always want, they want
8:34
Speaker 1: to pool everything so that you'll pay an advice fee,
8:37
Speaker 1: but it won't really reflect how much advice you have
8:40
Speaker 1: or how much you have in the bank or in
8:42
Speaker 1: the fund. This is being blocked, if you like, by
8:45
Speaker 1: other parties in Parliament because it's not transparent. And the
8:51
Speaker 1: issue in Big Super, as we know, is the lack
8:54
Speaker 1: of transparency. It's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. And
8:57
Speaker 1: their timing is pretty bad to try and push this
8:59
Speaker 1: because we've just had a a flurry of scandals, basically,
9:02
Speaker 1: in big super, often linked with the fact that people
9:05
Speaker 1: couldn't see how their funds were going, couldn't get payments
9:10
Speaker 1: in the timeframe they expected, or even issues around unlisted valuations.
9:16
Speaker 1: So we're talking about CBUS here, we're talking about HESTA here.
9:19
Speaker 1: But what I want to ask you is, do you
9:21
Speaker 1: think that will ever come to pass, that the big
9:23
Speaker 1: super funds will, if you like, fill the vacuum at
9:26
Speaker 1: the starter market?
9:29
Speaker 2: They want to, because they're worried about when people go
9:33
Speaker 2: into retirement mode, and that's where their leakage is. So
9:38
Speaker 2: they gather funds in accumulation and lose funds in retirement phase,
9:42
Speaker 2: and so they definitely want to. Look, this minister was
9:48
Speaker 2: going to fix the advice mess, I think is his words. Well,
9:51
Speaker 2: it's still a mess. It's 15,500 advisors. There is a
9:55
Speaker 2: shortage of advisors in Australia. And there is no, what
10:00
Speaker 2: I think, resolution out there at the moment. Will they
10:03
Speaker 2: be able to give impartial advice? No, is the answer.
10:07
Speaker 2: If you talk to CBUS about keeping your money in CBUS,
10:12
Speaker 2: that's not impartial advice.
10:14
Speaker 1: So what you're saying, if you said to the big fund...
10:17
Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to get into investment property and
10:19
Speaker 1: buy something, they are not going to encourage who you
10:23
Speaker 1: would think. Because the money would leave the fund.
10:25
Speaker 2: It's not impartial.
10:27
Speaker 1: It's not impartial, yeah. So with impartial advice, with independent advice,
10:33
Speaker 1: and I'm not asking you to justify it, I'm asking
10:35
Speaker 1: you as a player in the industry to justify it,
10:37
Speaker 1: the realistic figure of 4,000 to 5,000 a year, how
10:43
Speaker 1: does a good advisor justify that? to the investor?
10:48
Speaker 2: The amount of work that's required to run a small portfolio,
10:51
Speaker 2: probably why we don't do that, it's substantial. It doesn't
10:56
Speaker 2: matter if you're looking after a client who's at the
10:59
Speaker 2: smaller end or the bigger end. On a relative basis,
11:02
Speaker 2: the amount of work doesn't justify that increase and so therefore,
11:07
Speaker 2: you Unfortunately, it might sound a lot to people, $ 4, 500
11:12
Speaker 2: to $ 5, 000. I doubt that the firm's making much money
11:15
Speaker 2: out of that, given what they've got to do with
11:17
Speaker 2: respect to regulation, compliance. And when I say regulation, these
11:23
Speaker 2: are documents that have to be prepared and sent to
11:26
Speaker 2: the client to meet the regulations. Reviews, running the portfolio. Yeah.
11:32
Speaker 1: I think the point you made there is really interesting.
11:34
Speaker 1: I had never really thought about that. If someone comes
11:36
Speaker 1: in the door with 22 investments and their whole portfolio
11:39
Speaker 1: is worth a million and someone else comes in with
11:42
Speaker 1: 22 investments and the whole portfolio is worth 10 million,
11:46
Speaker 1: the amount of work isn't much different. Is that the
11:47
Speaker 1: point you're making?
11:50
Speaker 2: It naturally is more, but it's not 10 times more.
11:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see. I see. Yeah, okay.
11:57
Speaker 2: All right.
11:58
Speaker 1: But one other thing I want to explain to people
12:00
Speaker 1: that are listening and are keen about getting advice, and
12:03
Speaker 1: by the way, folks, I would always say this. Good
12:06
Speaker 1: advice is terrific. Pay for it. I have no problem
12:11
Speaker 1: paying for advice. I have no problem paying fees for
12:14
Speaker 1: fund managers on the assumption that they make you money.
12:18
Speaker 1: If someone... saves you anything more than their fee, then
12:25
Speaker 1: you're in the money basically. And often I would say
12:28
Speaker 1: to you, as something of a veteran investor at this
12:31
Speaker 1: stage myself, the earlier you get that advice, the more
12:35
Speaker 1: important it is because it's structural. And some of that
12:38
Speaker 1: advice could be around, for instance, the structure of an
12:42
Speaker 1: investment or the tax specifics long term, which you probably
12:46
Speaker 1: won't know unless you happen to be in that area professionally.
12:51
Speaker 1: I think that's the really important thing. And they often
12:54
Speaker 1: see things as well that are common knowledge among advisors
12:56
Speaker 1: but are not common knowledge to investors, even though we
13:00
Speaker 1: might be very much across investment and investment allocation. The
13:04
Speaker 1: actual putting together of a portfolio and how that works
13:07
Speaker 1: with the tax office is actually what really matters in
13:10
Speaker 1: terms of your returns. Okay, we're going to come back
13:13
Speaker 1: in a moment. We'll take a short break. And we're
13:15
Speaker 1: going to take a look a little deeper on who's
13:19
Speaker 1: who basically in this landscape for you as a listener
13:23
Speaker 1: and how to optimize your way through the financial advice system.
13:37
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back to the Australian's Money Puzzle podcast.
13:40
Speaker 1: I'm James Kirby, the wealth editor at The Australian. Welcome aboard, everybody.
13:45
Speaker 1: One of the things, Will, you mentioned there I thought
13:47
Speaker 1: was really interesting is, so once upon a time, not
13:51
Speaker 1: that long ago, say 10 years ago or so, there
13:53
Speaker 1: was 30,000 advisors in Australia. And now there's 15,000. Point one.
14:00
Speaker 1: Point two, the 15,000 advisors isn't growing. It's stalled basically
14:06
Speaker 1: at that number. They have very few recruits. They're really
14:09
Speaker 1: worried about this. I mean, professional associations are actually recruiting
14:12
Speaker 1: in India, trying to get people to come to Australia
14:15
Speaker 1: to be financial advisors. At the same time, there's this
14:18
Speaker 1: huge demand. So more than just finding an advisor, how
14:24
Speaker 1: do you get in the door to a good advisor?
14:26
Speaker 1: What would you need to, I'm going to put it
14:30
Speaker 1: this way, what would you need to offer the advisor?
14:32
Speaker 1: Because the point you made at the start there, when
14:34
Speaker 1: you were talking about a minimum, you were saying that
14:36
Speaker 1: there's a minimum, but You're happy if the person is
14:39
Speaker 1: aspiring to get to that minimum?
14:42
Speaker 2: If we're confident that they will get to that minimum, yeah.
14:44
Speaker 1: And how would the investor persuade you?
14:50
Speaker 2: Well, it's about their savings and earnings capacity. And we
14:53
Speaker 2: look at the other assets outside of what they're potentially
14:58
Speaker 2: giving us that they've got. Yeah, there's... When we get
15:01
Speaker 2: into a competitive situation with another firm and a client
15:06
Speaker 2: mentions that, and I think this is a really important thing,
15:08
Speaker 2: is I'm not going to pitch why we're good or
15:12
Speaker 2: what we do, et cetera. It's a personal thing. What
15:16
Speaker 2: we've got is a skill set. And I think being
15:21
Speaker 2: an advisor is about being a very good listener. And therefore,
15:25
Speaker 2: I say to them, you have to decide and go
15:28
Speaker 2: with the firm that you think you can best work with.
15:32
Speaker 2: outside of family, your asset base is the most important
15:37
Speaker 2: thing you've got. So people have to decide to work
15:40
Speaker 2: with a firm they think is the best thing they
15:43
Speaker 2: can work with. Now, we hope that's us, but in
15:45
Speaker 2: many cases, sometimes they decide that's another firm. And I
15:49
Speaker 2: think that's a very important thing. So it's not about
15:52
Speaker 2: looking up Google and deciding, oh, look, here's one. go
15:56
Speaker 2: and see them. Yeah, they can do the job. I
15:58
Speaker 2: really think this is, you want to have a long-term
16:00
Speaker 2: relationship and the firm that you're potentially going to see
16:02
Speaker 2: wants to have a long-term relationship as well. And you
16:07
Speaker 2: therefore need to find the person or people that you
16:10
Speaker 2: can best work with.
16:12
Speaker 1: And what about, let's say, when you were in your
16:16
Speaker 1: late 20s or 30s, you found an advisor, they were
16:19
Speaker 1: pretty good. It was all pretty good, got to a point.
16:22
Speaker 1: And then you're older and And you say, I'm actually
16:26
Speaker 1: in a different league now. And this person is very good,
16:30
Speaker 1: but it's the same thing every year. I'm clearly missing.
16:33
Speaker 1: I'm not getting this. I'm not getting that. He or
16:35
Speaker 1: she missed something this year that they should have picked up, etc.
16:39
Speaker 1: What about that issue of upscaling or switching to a
16:43
Speaker 1: more appropriate advisor?
16:44
Speaker 2: That, you know, sometimes you do grow out of things. relationships,
16:50
Speaker 2: don't you? And that's, I think, what you're talking about.
16:52
Speaker 2: And that doesn't just relate to financial advisors. It relates
16:54
Speaker 2: to accountants, lawyers, et cetera. A firm that you go to,
16:58
Speaker 2: you were talking about fund managers and fees before. Sometimes
17:01
Speaker 2: the big firms, they come out and say, we get
17:03
Speaker 2: fee discounts. Sorry, guys, everyone gets fee discounts. Make sure
17:06
Speaker 2: that the advisor gets fee discounts with the fund managers.
17:09
Speaker 2: That's nothing unique there. The other thing the really big
17:12
Speaker 2: guys say is we get access to product that others
17:15
Speaker 2: don't get. That's actually not true. Some of the smaller
17:18
Speaker 2: firms get access to things that the larger firms don't
17:21
Speaker 2: get because the larger firms are too big. So it
17:24
Speaker 2: goes both ways. So you just want to make sure
17:26
Speaker 2: there is a good, that you are able to access
17:29
Speaker 2: a broad, high quality spectrum of solutions, multi-asset class across
17:36
Speaker 2: the board and at the right price. Right.
17:40
Speaker 1: And turning it on the other side of the table
17:43
Speaker 1: in terms of the relationship. So a couple comes in
17:46
Speaker 1: to an advisor. And one person is clearly very numerate, conservative, capable,
17:54
Speaker 1: and is going to be a good client. Unfortunately, the
17:59
Speaker 1: other partner in the couple, you can see, just wants
18:03
Speaker 1: to spend, also wants to just knock it out of
18:07
Speaker 1: the park and find a 10 bagger. Then you have,
18:13
Speaker 1: and let's make it even more interesting. Someone told you
18:16
Speaker 1: that they're at the point of divorce.
18:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:21
Speaker 1: The point I'm making here is the client changes on
18:24
Speaker 1: you too, I'm sure.
18:26
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
18:27
Speaker 1: And how do you deal with that?
18:28
Speaker 2: So one thing we have is everyone has to do
18:30
Speaker 2: a risk profile. And one thing we do, and we
18:33
Speaker 2: disclose this to the client, is we use a thing
18:35
Speaker 2: called Investor DNA, which has an embedded psychometric test in it.
18:39
Speaker 2: So we can sort of see some, and that's fully
18:42
Speaker 2: disclosed to the client. So we can see their stress
18:45
Speaker 2: points and what they rely on when they're under stress.
18:47
Speaker 2: And so it's making sure there's the right advisor is
18:50
Speaker 2: aligned to the right client.
18:53
Speaker 1: Do the psychometric tests in your experience, are they reliable?
18:57
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
18:59
Speaker 1: They are. I've heard this many times, but I wanted
19:01
Speaker 1: to ask you. They're very reliable. Yeah, okay.
19:04
Speaker 2: And I think in one client in particular, I sort
19:06
Speaker 2: of had in my mind after I met him, X
19:08
Speaker 2: is going to look after him. And back came the
19:10
Speaker 2: test and I was, whoa, I was wrong there. You've
19:13
Speaker 2: got to go in a totally different direction. And that's
19:16
Speaker 2: really important, really important. And, you know, sometimes in a
19:19
Speaker 2: relationship when you have couples, you don't realize that one
19:22
Speaker 2: is definitely stronger personality and with respect to financial literacy
19:29
Speaker 2: than the other. And in that case, you know, sometimes
19:33
Speaker 2: you realize that the other part of the couple, you know,
19:36
Speaker 2: we've got a dentist who's next door to us and
19:37
Speaker 2: they probably prefer to go to the dentist than come
19:39
Speaker 2: to us.
19:41
Speaker 1: Yes, and that thing that people can be terrific. Someone
19:43
Speaker 1: could be a terrific commercial lawyer and a catastrophic investor.
19:48
Speaker 1: I'm sure you come across that all the time. the time.
19:51
Speaker 2: I always say, and I think this is something which
19:54
Speaker 2: is really important as well, and I know a lot
19:58
Speaker 2: of the better advisors, especially on your list, would do
20:01
Speaker 2: exactly this as well. When we are right, our firm
20:05
Speaker 2: does things a certain way, and if someone comes in
20:07
Speaker 2: and wants... as always looking for that 10 bagger, as
20:10
Speaker 2: you put it, I would introduce them to somebody else.
20:13
Speaker 2: You know, we are, as I always say, we're a
20:16
Speaker 2: service about keeping wealthy people wealthy. And I think that's,
20:19
Speaker 2: and I think another, most of the other firms on
20:22
Speaker 2: that list, I think if they didn't feel the client
20:24
Speaker 2: was right for them, they would introduce them on. Yes.
20:26
Speaker 1: And that, and hopefully also making them wealthy on their way,
20:31
Speaker 1: which of course would be what a lot of listeners
20:34
Speaker 1: would be most keen upon, I expect, in terms of
20:37
Speaker 1: a mathematical breakdown. Okay, one last thing on this. You
20:41
Speaker 1: mentioned you were in LA at a financial advisor conference.
20:44
Speaker 1: You mentioned there was a female panel. Do you know
20:47
Speaker 1: that my numbers on this are as follows? In Australia,
20:53
Speaker 1: among the 15,500 advisors, 23% only are female. And on
20:54
Speaker 1: the list that came out today, the top 150 top
21:05
Speaker 1: financial advisors list in the Australian, only 13% are female.
21:11
Speaker 1: And that number hasn't moved much since we started. I
21:15
Speaker 1: would have thought it would have, and I would have
21:17
Speaker 1: thought that as an area, it would have had a
21:22
Speaker 1: much more sort of natural gender balance by now without
21:28
Speaker 1: any need for encouragement. I would have thought it would
21:30
Speaker 1: just happen, but it hasn't at all.
21:32
Speaker 2: Any.
21:34
Speaker 1: theories from you as to why.
21:35
Speaker 2: It gets back to things like the royal commission now
21:38
Speaker 2: a very senior female fund manager tom in sydney was
21:42
Speaker 2: telling me that she was at her daughter's school she
21:46
Speaker 2: was asked to host you know the careers night to
21:49
Speaker 2: go into finance you're right and so she sort of
21:52
Speaker 2: turned up there to host all these young girls and
21:55
Speaker 2: they wanted to go into finance not one person turned
21:57
Speaker 2: up at a leading Sydney private school. And I think
22:03
Speaker 2: that the image of the industry still, it's, you know,
22:06
Speaker 2: it's at front of mind, you know, you want to
22:08
Speaker 2: go and do commerce. You've sort of got at the
22:11
Speaker 2: end of mind, you want to be a lawyer. You
22:12
Speaker 2: don't want to be an accountant. It's not, we're still,
22:16
Speaker 2: we're becoming a profession. I think we're well down that road.
22:22
Speaker 2: Have we got that to that level yet? It's when
22:26
Speaker 2: society accepts us as such. That's when you become a profession.
22:30
Speaker 2: But I don't think we're front of mind enough for
22:32
Speaker 2: a lot of younger people. Oh, I want to become
22:34
Speaker 2: a financial advisor. And I think that's one of the problems.
22:37
Speaker 2: And the second issue is some of the bad reputation
22:42
Speaker 2: that we had from years ago. And that was terrible,
22:45
Speaker 2: whilst I think we've made incredible inroads in cleaning that up.
22:48
Speaker 2: And I think they're two of the things that have
22:50
Speaker 2: been an issue now. We train young women and bring
22:56
Speaker 2: them up, and it's very important that you We do that.
23:01
Speaker 2: It's the alternative.
23:02
Speaker 1: Obviously, listeners to the show will be familiar with many
23:04
Speaker 1: female advisors that I have on the show all the time.
23:07
Speaker 1: Sally Wynne, of course, from Shadforth, is on the list.
23:10
Speaker 1: As usual, she's another veteran on the list this year.
23:13
Speaker 1: And the Shadforth group really, really lifted their presence on
23:18
Speaker 1: the list this year. The top, of course, is Morgan Stanley.
23:22
Speaker 1: Once again, Garth Hugh, a Bradman-esque performance. A Lewis Hamilton-like
23:28
Speaker 1: performance in the list. He's number one for the fifth
23:32
Speaker 1: year in a row and the number one highest ranking
23:34
Speaker 1: woman is also from Morgan Stanley. That's Cathy Ding in
23:38
Speaker 1: there at number 18. So congratulations to all those. OK, folks,
23:42
Speaker 1: we'll take a short break and we'll be back with
23:44
Speaker 1: some really good questions in a moment. Hello, welcome back
23:54
Speaker 1: to the Australian's Money Puzzle podcast. James Kirby talking to
23:57
Speaker 1: Will Hamilton. Okay, we have a few questions. Okay, why
24:01
Speaker 1: don't you read the first one because the second one
24:02
Speaker 1: I'm more across. Yeah, from Emma.
24:05
Speaker 2: So Emma asks, heard you mention a request for dollar
24:09
Speaker 2: cost averaging in the last episode and I'd like to
24:11
Speaker 2: ask for this topic to be explained. I've recently set
24:14
Speaker 2: up a monthly direct debit investment into high growth ETF
24:17
Speaker 2: for my niece and nephew and would like them to
24:19
Speaker 2: understand how this works over time. So you would do
24:23
Speaker 2: much better than I could. So Emma, the thing is,
24:26
Speaker 2: there's a saying in the markets that time in the market,
24:29
Speaker 2: not timing the market. And if you can get the
24:32
Speaker 2: top or the bottom, you're better than anyone else I know.
24:36
Speaker 2: So the thing is, it's about averaging in and what
24:40
Speaker 2: you're doing is exactly what you're doing is a monthly
24:43
Speaker 2: direct debit, which I presume is going in every month
24:46
Speaker 2: as you're averaging a certain amount, $ 100, $ 1, 000, whatever that is.
24:51
Speaker 2: into this ETF. And that's dollar cost averaging because you
24:55
Speaker 2: might be going in at $ 1 one month and $ 1. 10
24:57
Speaker 2: the next month and at 96 cents the next month.
25:00
Speaker 2: And you're averaging in with those amounts and that's dollar
25:02
Speaker 2: cost averaging.
25:04
Speaker 1: In a way, ETFs are almost like that, weren't they?
25:08
Speaker 1: In that they just follow the market. And if you
25:12
Speaker 1: just put in the same amount of money every month...
25:17
Speaker 1: then a month will happen where the market is overpriced
25:20
Speaker 1: and you've paid too much. But you will balance that
25:22
Speaker 1: off by the month you buy when things are really
25:25
Speaker 1: low and nobody's going in, but you're going in. And
25:28
Speaker 1: that habit basically gives you the consistency. Look, it's a
25:32
Speaker 1: very strong theory, which is very hard to knock. The
25:37
Speaker 1: only thing you can do is there are occasions through
25:40
Speaker 1: history where the market doesn't return, rebound, or revert to
25:44
Speaker 1: the mean, and it's tough. during those times, that's for sure.
25:48
Speaker 1: But it's a very strong principle, and in a way,
25:50
Speaker 1: at its very best, our superannuation system, where you must
25:54
Speaker 1: put in so much per month into super, buy low,
25:59
Speaker 1: is a version of it, actually. Okay, we will move
26:03
Speaker 1: on to Greg. Last weekend, in The Weekend Australian, with
26:07
Speaker 1: regard to potentially investing in the new Trump fund, American market,
26:12
Speaker 1: you mentioned a couple of Vanguard ETFs. I've since discarded
26:16
Speaker 1: the broadsheet by that. I mean, I'm sure you mean
26:19
Speaker 1: the single issue of the paper, Greg. Can you please
26:22
Speaker 1: remind me what they are? Happy to remind everybody that
26:27
Speaker 1: I will not and do not in any way emphasis
26:30
Speaker 1: one product over another or one advisor over another or
26:33
Speaker 1: anything like that. And I'll tell you a funny story.
26:36
Speaker 1: There's ETFs, index funds on American markets. Of course, you
26:41
Speaker 1: should be in there. I'm in there. And I think
26:42
Speaker 1: any advisor, at least any investor who wants access or
26:46
Speaker 1: exposure to the US, it's a great way in. But
26:48
Speaker 1: here's the thing. And every ETF product maker in Australia
26:52
Speaker 1: will be annoyed at what I'm about to say. They're
26:54
Speaker 1: all the same. I had lunch with an employee of
26:59
Speaker 1: a major company. ETF player. And they said, listen, we
27:05
Speaker 1: are like the laundry detergent salesmen in the 1970s. They're
27:11
Speaker 1: all more or less the same. And we have to
27:13
Speaker 1: distinguish ourselves in some fashion. So keep that in mind.
27:18
Speaker 1: There's Vanguard, there's iShares, there's BetaShares, there is GlobalX and others.
27:24
Speaker 1: And I am happy to say that as long as
27:26
Speaker 1: you get started with one of them, The difference in
27:29
Speaker 1: performance to you over a long period of time would
27:32
Speaker 1: be infinitesimal, I imagine, between the ETFs because the promise
27:36
Speaker 1: is that they exactly replicate the market that they're buying in.
27:39
Speaker 1: I'm talking about traditional ETFs here strictly. I'm not talking
27:43
Speaker 1: about ETFs, Greg. I hope that's all clear. Okay. A
27:47
Speaker 1: question from Dusty, who is, I'm guessing, male in the
27:51
Speaker 1: way of Dusty, Slim Dusty, or maybe Dusty Springfield. Who knows?
27:55
Speaker 1: We'll just have to guess. Anyway, you might read the question.
27:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, since the election win, Trump has been nominating a
28:01
Speaker 2: number of people for his second term, the secretaries. Most recently,
28:05
Speaker 2: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was nominated as the Secretary for
28:08
Speaker 2: Health and Human Services. The following day, most of the
28:11
Speaker 2: vaccine makers' stocks went down because RFK Jr. 's stance
28:15
Speaker 2: on vaccines. If he ends up getting the stocks, what
28:17
Speaker 2: are your thoughts on overall healthcare sector, especially for our
28:20
Speaker 2: local blue chips? Yeah, it's not financial advice, but I
28:25
Speaker 2: think the... With these things, you often get a kick
28:29
Speaker 2: down and you get an overreaction. Things balance out. If
28:34
Speaker 2: they're quality and they've got a product that saves lives, whatever,
28:38
Speaker 2: it's going to continue on its merry way. But just
28:41
Speaker 2: expect an overreaction, I think, is probably what you usually get.
28:44
Speaker 1: I mean, this never advises information, Dusty and all the
28:48
Speaker 1: Dustys out there. Having said that, RFK Jr., who, by
28:54
Speaker 1: the way, whatever else he is, He's pretty healthy looking.
28:57
Speaker 1: He's 71, you know. He's openly sceptical about vaccines. He
29:02
Speaker 1: is going to get that post. CSL has fallen sharply
29:06
Speaker 1: in recent times. And it's supposed to be a blue
29:08
Speaker 1: chip that doesn't fall sharply. It's not having a pretty
29:10
Speaker 1: good run at the moment anyway. And this would not
29:13
Speaker 1: seem to be good for them. Assuming it happens in
29:19
Speaker 1: the short to medium term, I think that is a
29:21
Speaker 1: reasonable observation. But as you're saying, Will, it is a
29:24
Speaker 1: quality stock. And quality stocks should see it through whatever
29:29
Speaker 1: challenges is put to them or put in front of them.
29:32
Speaker 2: And there'll be an overreaction.
29:34
Speaker 1: You think, yeah. And is there any other Australian stock
29:36
Speaker 1: that would be exposed, if you like, to the idiot?
29:41
Speaker 1: thoughts of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
29:46
Speaker 2: That's the big one that stands out. And boy, does
29:47
Speaker 2: it stand out. Yeah, right.
29:49
Speaker 1: Okay. Very good. Well, thank you for listening today, folks.
29:52
Speaker 1: Thank you, Will.
29:54
Speaker 2: Thank you, James.
29:55
Speaker 1: Always great to have you on the show. Well done
29:57
Speaker 1: for being on the list, for being for being one
30:00
Speaker 1: of the stayers on the list. There's very few of them, actually.
30:03
Speaker 1: I looked at the 217 list, which is only 50 people.
30:07
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it all week. I'm dizzy from looking
30:09
Speaker 1: at the list because I've been doing it. And it's
30:12
Speaker 1: quite different now with 150. But well done to anyone
30:17
Speaker 1: who was on that list. And if you are considering
30:19
Speaker 1: getting an advisor, well, I'm certainly happy to say to
30:22
Speaker 1: put that list in front of you. Okay. Now, today's
30:25
Speaker 1: show was produced by Leah Samoglu. Thank you very much, Leah.
30:30
Speaker 1: And as I said at the start, any correspondence, issues, questions, complaints,
30:36
Speaker 1: or if you are having problems with big super funds,
30:39
Speaker 1: let me know. themoneypuzzleattheaustralian.com.au. Talk to you soon.
30:51
Speaker 2: Thank you.