A big thank you to all of you for making our largest IFS Advice Conference a huge success, we appreciate your time, energy and contributions. It was a fantastic turnout and seeing so many of you engaged and coming together to share insights, learn, and connect was incredibly rewarding. We hope you found the sessions valuable and that they’ve sparked new ideas and connections to carry forward.

The key focus areas from the conference were:  

Session 1: Best Practice Success Stories

Moderator: Patrick O'Keefe
Panel: Aaron Feher and Joshua Jinks (Brighter Super)
          Sam Qassim and Matthew Lowry (Hostplus)
          Kiran Bhullar (UniSuper)

• We explored how funds should be purposeful in the design of their advice offering to address specific member needs and outcomes, enabling both funds and advisers to adhere to best practice standards. By tackling advice needs in innovative ways, funds can help more members successfully implement advice and retire with confidence. A key to success is learning from the experiences of teams and individuals from IFS’ network. Further, we need to be more thoughtful of how changed is managed to best support our advice teams to try new processes and approaches.
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Session 2: Challenging Business Rules Workshop

Moderators: Craig Sankey and Danica Lozada

• Regular reviews to drive improvement of business rules is crucial in a rapidly changing environment to ensure they remain relevant and effective. Rules should solve for a specific and undesirable risks, and its healthy to challenge them periodically to ensure the need for them remains, and they remain effective. There are a number of mechanisms to address risks in an advice process, and technology should play a more significant role going forward. Simply requiring advisers to complete more steps adds to the cost of advice and doesn't always reduce the risk profile of advice.
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Session 3: Terrible Advice for Excellent Financial Planners – Understanding Consumer Behaviour Science

Speaker: Dan Monheit

• With the help of Hardhat’s Dan, we explored the pros and cons of choice, and how advisers might unintentionally be creating confusion and uncertainty by presenting too many options. Using techniques such as ‘people like you’ and soft defaults, decision making can be made a lot easier. Further, we learned that we don't necessarily need to deliver ‘perfect experiences’, rather we need to create memorable moments.  
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Session 4: Retirement Advice – Advice And Product…How Best Do They Fit Together?

Moderator: Stephen Huppert
Panel: Fern Havea (AustralianSuper) and Aaron Minney (Challenger)

• This session explored how the introduction of innovative retirement products, prompted by the Retirement Income Covenant, is transforming the role of advice teams. Framed as a debate, the session examined the question, “Should longevity products be the default choice for all members?” with the panel presenting opposing perspectives. We heard about the benefits of default longevity products in ensuring stable retirement income, while also focusing on how individual choice and flexibility can change retirement outcomes. Audience members answered a series of questions, deciding which viewpoint made the strongest case, sparking valuable discussion on the future of retirement planning.
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Session 5: Technology: Friend Or Foe For An Adviser?

Moderator: Maureen Daley
Panel: Kerry Ong (Iress), Samantha Clarke (Advice Regtech) and Adrian Gervasoni (IFS)

• IFS outlined some its research and design work focused on the future of help and guidance delivery by analysing other industries, conducting advice appointments, member research, and fund interviews. We have identified 12 'Moments that Matter Most to Members' to focus on developing delivery options supported by technology, aiming to positively impact retirement outcomes. We also saw how Advice RegTech supports quality and compliance assurance in a call centre setting, with potential applications in other areas requiring scalable oversight solutions. Iress also offered insights into advice production and technology, guided by the seven megatrends outlined in its "Big Shift" report which is aimed at addressing challenges related to advice efficiency, technology, scale, and solutions, supporting advisers and delivering on their technology roadmap.
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Session 6: Mental Health And High Performance

Moderator: Ben Leaver
Panel: Natalie Irvine and Glen Van Dyk

• The evolving business landscape significantly impacts mental health and wellbeing, often leading to long-term burnout. It’s crucial for leaders and managers to detect early signs to effectively manage employee performance. Additionally, we learned that workplace mental health programs, particularly those focusing on preventative interventions, can enhance ROI. Unfortunately, only 9% of Australian businesses have an integrated approach to mental health and, this calls for better governance on wellbeing programs. The audience also experienced various strategies to better manage work-related stress.  
  

A huge congratulations to all IFS Advice Conference Awards 2024:  

• Financial Adviser of the Year (Comprehensive) - Paul Ambrose of Hostplus
• Financial Adviser of the Year (Limited) - Katarina Glarin of Brighter Super
• Paraplanner of the Year - Jay Han of Industry Fund Services
• Advice Assurance Award - Michael Young of Vision Super  
• IFS Professional Partner Award - Hostplus
• Advice Support Person of the Year - Desiree Bandekar of Brighter Super
• Outstanding Financial Adviser Service Award - Larry Squillace of Hostplus
• Financial Advice Team of the Year – Hostplus
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We would like to thank all the session speakers, MCs and the organising team for making this event so rewarding and high-energy.