FAAA upgrades ‘Find a Planner’ service

Australians will now have a new online facility to seek out qualified financial advisers, with the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) unveiling its upgraded ‘Find a Planner’ tool.

The revamped Find a Planner function boasts a “significantly improved” interactive user interface and enhanced profile pages, which the FAAA said will better match financial advisers with consumers.

Members will get more personalisation options for their profiles, enabling them to add details such as the starting rates for fees and whether they offer virtual or face-to-face meetings.

A new “quick links” section will also provide access to members’ social media profiles, as well as their FAR or Adviser Ratings profile.

At the client end, searchers will also have more options to filter their search of planner profiles, including by credentials, areas of specialisation and focus, languages spoken, gender, and years of experience, while automatic location recognition will present more geographically relevant results.

Keyword searches will also pick up any words used in the member’s profile.

Tania Milnes, FAAA’s general manager membership, said the upgrade of Find a Planner is the final step in peak body’s digital transformation, which also includes a redesign of its Money & Life website.

Money & Life, the FAAA said, will now be “purely a consumer hub focused on financial wellbeing”.

“Our members have told us that greater engagement with consumers was something they would like to see from the FAAA,” Milnes said.

“The relaunch of the Find a Planner tool, and revamped Money & Life website including a monthly newsletter, are key elements of this focus.”

She added: “Money & Life offers insights and tips from FAAA members, and other experts, to help Australians take control of their financial future, as well as better understand the value of advice, while the Find a Planner tool will enable them to find the right adviser for them,” she said.