After a three-year wait, the Financial Planning Association’s Professionals Congress was back for 2022! This year’s FPA Australia Professionals Congress saw over 1200 registered attendees gather in Syndey for two days of networking, workshops and keynotes. We asked our attendees to reflect on their biggest learnings from the event.
Sophorn Hak:
“My biggest learning is about the next generation (millennials). How they communicate differs. Even the emojis they use have a different meaning from how I use them, and they didn’t adapt to working from home as much as the older generation did. Also that having a multi-stage career will become the new normal as people live longer and therefore will stay in the workforce longer. Throughout their life, they will go through different careers, be an employee or self-employed and back again, engage in paid and unpaid work, part-time work stints, and re-education. Therefore life planning that encompasses health, finances and happiness is important“.
Aden Wilkins:
“The conference reinforced the importance of mastering your craft and creating value. The idea that we need to expand our thinking to grow and prepare for the future, specifically “you can’t find new treasure using an old map”. It also reinforced the idea that perspective and mindset play a big role in personal success and fulfilment. We all need to celebrate imperfections, view vulnerability as a strength, and focus on what we can control, with the knowledge that the greatest growth comes from the darkest times”.
Damon Sugden:
Damon summarises his key points from a session by Professor Andrew Scott on The 100-Year Life. “I learnt that one in five girls born today will live to age 100. Life expectancy increases by two-three years every ten years. Therefore, we need to prepare not only financially, but for the best quality of life ahead of us, specifically asking ourselves ‘what am I going to do today, to age well/age differently?’. We need to invest in our ability to embrace change and maintain a high degree of vitality. Retirement is a multistage process, it is no longer black and white. We need to take a health-first approach, as opposed to an intervention-based approach.
Kathryn Creasy:
According to Kathryn, her learnings came from the power of reconnecting with peers. “There were a lot of people I met for the first time in person, having only connected with them previously via Zoom and email, and it was really refreshing to be all together. It gives me excitement for the future of financial advice, there are lots of great advisers out there – we all have the same goals of providing great advice for our clients and there is a lot to look forward to”.
Charmaine Lamprecht:
The challenge we have as an industry/community is that 12 million Australians have unmet financial advice needs. Research tells us that people that seek advice have a better quality of life. This is thanks to better physical and mental health outcomes, improved relationships, and education, living longer and improved life outcomes in their older years.
From podcasting to speaking on stage, our team enjoyed what was a fun, challenging and thought-provoking week. The future of the financial planning industry, providing ethical, sound advice surely looks bright.
