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Quantum in the media

Quantum Wealth Advisors are regularly asked their expert opinion on topical industry debates.

 

 

 

 

The following press articles relate to Quantum Wealth Advisors in the news:

 

Quantum Senior Wealth Advisor Tim Mackay awarded highest SMSF recognition

In July 2010, the Self Managed Super Funds Professional Association of Australia (SPAA) recognised Tim Mackay as SMSF Specialist AdvisorTM.

Tim successfully completed an independent and rigorous accreditation program which not only tested his knowledge of SMSF legislation and regulatory requirements but also assessed his professional business and ethical practices to ensure ‘best practice'.

According to Tim: “Quite rightly, clients and potential clients are increasingly looking for trusted, expert SMSF advisors. The SMSF Specialist Advisor TM qualification is recognised as the highest industry symbol of authority and expertise for those advising in SMSFs. By embracing higher professional standards, my clients can feel rest assured that I will help them manage their SMSF efficiently, effectively and confidently.”

Quantum Financial congratulates Tim on his promotion to SMSF Specialist AdvisorTM in recognition of the professional and trusted service he has provided Quantum's clients since 2005. 

 

Quantum Financial CEO Bill Mackay appointed a Fellow of the FPA

In March 2010, the Chair of the Financial Planning Association in Australia (FPA) Julie Berry made the following announcement:

"Fellows of the FPA - The Board approved a number of Fellows and congratulations should be extended to:

  • Bill Mackay CFP

A Fellow of the FPA is an outstanding practitioner who has made a selfless contribution to the profession and provides exemplary leadership to their peers."

According to the CEO of the FPA Jo-Anne Bloch, this award is a "great opportunity to congratulate and reward those FPA members who had demonstrated professionalism, commitment and excellence in financial planning for over 10 years.... This Award is about recognising those who selflessly strive to better our profession”.

Quantum Financial congratulates Bill on his promotion to Fellow of the FPA in recognition of the professional and trusted service he has provided Quantum's clients since 1994. 

 

Quantum's 7 point blueprint to fix the financial planning industry

In proposing our recommendations to the Parliamentary Joint Commission, we started with the following key objectives:

  • To increase consumer trust and confidence in the financial planning industry
  • To enable the public to easily identify qualified and ethical financial planners who are subject to, and comply with, professional standards
  • To recognise and regulate financial planning as a profession
  • To increase baseline standards of competency and enforce a fiduciary standard of care for the delivery of financial planning services.

We list our 7 key recommendations below:

  • Recommendation 1: Introduce regulatory changes to prohibit product providers from setting remuneration terms for intermediaries and require intermediaries to set their own remuneration arrangements with consumers.
  • Recommendation 2: Empower consumers by enabling them to stop paying financial planning advice related commission and/or fees at any time, at their discretion.
  • Recommendation 3: Introduce regulatory changes to ensure consumers can distinguish between independent investment advice and sales driven financial product sales.
  • Recommendation 4: Regulate and restrict the use of the titles ‘financial planner’ and ‘financial advisor’ (we use these two terms interchangeably).
  • Recommendation 5: Enforce and review existing disclosure rules regarding the term ‘independent’ and ensure the compulsory full and clear disclosure of all related parties.
  • Recommendation 6: Increase financial planning education and experience entry standards.
  • Recommendation 7: Establish a new, overarching Professional Standards Board, with similar powers to standards boards in other professions; membership of which is compulsory.

Please view our detailed 34 page submission to the Parliamentary Joint Commission <here>.

 

From Budget to Big Spender: Who's too flash with their cash

In May 2009 Quantum Wealth Advisor Claire Mackay was approached by Marie Claire magazine (as part of its 2009 Budget Special edition) to give 3 young professionals a 'money makeover'. You can view the article in pdf format "From Budget to Big Spender: Who's too flash with their cash".

 

Opportunities are waiting to be found in challenging times

In 2009 Quantum Wealth Advisor Tim Mackay was profiled in the North Shore Times as one of the top financial planners in the local North Shore community. You can view the article in pdf format "Opportunities are waiting to be found in challenging times".

 

Recognition as one of Australia's Top 50 Financial Advisors

In 2009 Quantum Wealth Advisor Tim Mackay was acknowledged as one of Australia's Top 50 Financial Advisors. He was awarded membership of the Australian Financial Review Smart Investor Masterclass for Financial Planning 2009.

 

Big enough to serve you...Small enough to care

In 2007 and 2008 we were proud to be listed among the Top 100 Australia-wide financial planning practices in IFA's Dealer Group Survey.

Despite this, we strategically choose to remain independently owned and flexible enough to service all of our clients on a completely personalised and tailored basis. Delighting our customers with high levels of service is at the very heart of how we choose to do business.

 

Let clients have the power over how they pay fees

Letter to the Editor of the leading financial planning industry magazine, IFA (Independent Financial Advisors), 03-Aug-08

Dear Editor,

The fees versus commissions ‘debate’is a silly debate over whose conflicts are bigger. The proponents of time based fees present them as some remarkable panacea to our industry’s ills. The truth on time based fees could not be further from the truth as lawyers already well know. According to High Court Chief Justice Murray Gleeson “It is difficult to justify a system in which inefficiency is rewarded with higher remuneration”.

NSW Supreme Court Jim Spigelman went further “One thing that has occurred over [the last 10 years] is that time-based charging has become almost universal. I do not believe that this is sustainable…The difficulty of course is that the person providing the service, namely the legal practitioner, does not have a financial incentive to do the service as quickly as possible.”

So let’s stop arguing over whose pricing conflict of interest is bigger than whose. Give each client the choice between commissions and fees, stop being paternalistic and condescending towards them. They know best how they want to pay fees, not any of us.

Let’s talk about the real elephant in the room that everyone conveniently seems to forget when it comes to massive conflicts of interests. How can anyone give supposed independent advice on their own products? Or to put it another way, how can the sales forces of the product manufacturers be referred to as advisors and not sales people? I do note that the vast majority of ‘advisors’, FPA members and indeed IFA’s readers and advertisers are fundamentally conflicted in this way. I wonder why none are keen to have this debate? I look forward to the ensuing, deafening silence of debate.

Tim Mackay Quantum Wealth Advisors, Chatswood

Please note: Quantum Wealth Advisors no longer holds the view that consumers should be able to choose between commissions and fee for service. We now agree with Choice Magazine that commissions are only in the best interest of advisors, not in the best interest of consumers, are poorly understood by consumers and should be banned. In our opinion,  an uninformed choice is no choice at all. 

 

Knowledge, ethics and professionalism

We provide a copy of a profile written by journalist Julie May of one of our leading financial planners, Tim Mackay for the leading financial planning industry magazine, Independent Financial Advisors magazine, 24-Aug-08. the article was titled "Father and son build wealth through education". We reproduce the text of the profile below:

THE DEALER

Established in 1994, Quantum is an independently-owned and operated advisory and training group, free of ties to any financial institution. The dealer group was established by chief executive Bill Mackay in Chatswood, Sydney.

In 1264 St Thomas Aquinas wrote "Quantum potes, tantum aude" or "However so much as you are capable of doing, dare to do that much." Mackay chose the name to reflect the attitude of excellence held by Quantum's staff and clients.

Quantum holds an Australian financial services licence and is a principal member of the FPA and the Boutique Financial Planning Principals' Group, as well as being an accredited registered training organisation. It delivers nationally-recognised financial development courses and provides ASIC-authorised training and assessment for responsible managers and advisors.

Its highly-trained wealth advisors operate throughout Australia, while its trainers and assessors provide a range of ASIC compliance requirements, financial training courses and continued professional development nationally.

Education, integrity and ethics modules playa huge part in the way Quantum does business, both with its advisors and clients. Quantum's ethics and continued professional development module is compulsory for all advisors and based partly on the ethical models Mackay adopted from his theology degree. Trainers have specialist knowledge in areas including securities, derivatives, property, managed investments, economics, fixed income products, superannuation, including self-managed super funds, and life insurance.

THE PRACTICE

Quantum Financial Services Australia founder Bill Mackay says there are three simple but effective building blocks that enhance a company's client reputation: knowledge, ethics and professionalism.

 "He argues if you don't continually develop all three, your reputation in financial planning is nothing," operating officer and wealth advisor Tim Mackay says.

It was along the same line of thinking that Bill, Tim's father, initially knocked him back when he asked for a foot in the door at Quantum. "He wanted me to go out and develop my own knowledge and worldly experience before he'd offer me a job," Tim says.

For as long as he can remember, Tim has been fascinated by finance and running his own business.

"When Bill launched Quantum in 1994, along with the independently-owned Quantum dealer group, I would often spend time helping out around the office while at university," he says.

When Bill set Tim the challenge to explore the finance industry, Tim did exactly that and headed overseas as a young chartered accountant, particularly keen to explore the "major finance hubs of the world", London and New York, he says.

"In London I worked in risk management in exotic derivatives, was an equity sell-side analyst in pan European property and telecoms, and I also worked in fixed income. On Wall Street I worked on the stock exchange floor and in Laos I undertook a volunteer consulting project in micro-financing for UNICEF and the Lao Government."

Looking back, Tim says he was glad Bill sent him out to gain financial skills in a new environment. "I learnt so much," he says.

Returning to Australia and joining Quantum in 2005 , Tim says the main challenge was the transition from advising institutional clients to retail clients.

"I love the challenge. It's amazing how the international financial experience and networks gained at Deutsche Bank, UBS and HSBC in New York and London benefit my clients today," he says.

While Quantum attracts most of its clients through referral, Tim says it's important all clients share Quantum's approach to ethics, education and professionalism.

"An educated client is a happier client," Tim says. Quantum sends regular communications, specifically e-newsletters about s such as self-managed superannuation funds, budgeting, asset allocation and market volatility. 

"This encourages two-way communications between us and our clients," Tim says.

A passionate advocate for Quantum's continued professional development offering, he says Quantum provides a range of training modules, including those that help advisors meet ASIC compliance and accreditation requirements.

"Our goal is to provide the most informed and proactive service to clients and ensure our advisors have the tools to do so," he says.

Quantum is also a member of the Boutique Financial Planning Principals' Group. "It's a group of bright, ethically-minded advisors who regularly share their ideas and thoughts, and is a great avenue to bounce ideas around and learn from others' experiences," Tim says.

According to Bill, learning is not compulsory, but neither is survival. We love to learn and we strive to ensure our clients and advisors do as well." It was education that sent Tim abroad to do his MBA at London and Columbia Business Schools, but it was also what brought him back to Australia.

"I like the challenges that come with a new client base, particularly the different generations we service, including our pre-retiree clients and in more recent years their children," Tim says.

Asked if there were any challenges that come with catering to clients from the same family, he says you have got to understand you are privy to sensitive information.

"Sometimes you know that couples are looking to have kids before their parents know and sometimes you know parents plan to move interstate before their kids know," he says.

Despite acquiring the skill to keep his lips sealed, he says the best thing about financial planning is you are a part of the very important process of building relationships for life and helping your clients achieve their financial aspirations.

He says about his and Bill's Quantum journey that he feels how the music group the Carpenters did in the 1970s: "We've only just begun.

 

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