Johan Minnie, CEO at Consult by Momentum
Financial advice is changing, whether people realise it or not.
It is changing because the way households earn, spend and plan has shifted, and because the rules that govern advice are being rewritten at the same time. What people need from their financial adviser is not the same as it was even a few years ago, and the industry must respond – or fall behind.
What this means is that the job of a financial adviser no longer begins and ends with products or portfolios. People now want their advisers to address the realities of their day-to-day financial lives and help them navigate and adapt to uncertainty, and that shift in expectations means advisers must change how they work in response. Five shifts, in particular, are setting the direction for what comes next in financial advice.
1. AI is making human advice more valuable, not less
Digital tools and AI are now part of everyday financial life. Clients compare products online, track their spending on apps, and arrive at advice meetings armed with more information than they once had. What an adviser has to bring to this table is not just information, but interpretation. Only a human adviser can look holistically at a client’s life and dreams and help them plan specific to their context, within our unique South African landscape.
Used well, technology does not replace advisers – it augments them. When routine analysis and data processing are handled by machines, advisers gain back something increasingly scarce: time. Time to sit across from clients, to understand their full context, and to apply judgement rather than simply relay information. In that sense, AI is raising expectations of advisers, and those who embrace it will find themselves better equipped to deliver impactful advice in a more informed world.
2. One-size-fits-all advice is out, personalisation is in
Your client doesn’t want to retire at 65, she wants to open a quirky bookshop in a coastal town. He doesn’t just want to educate his kids; he wants to send them to a university overseas. And just like everyone’s goals are specific to them, so are their stresses. Many households juggle multiple income streams, debt, support for family members and uncertain employment prospects, which makes generic advice increasingly redundant.
Clients want guidance that reflects how they actually live, not how a blanket portfolio assumes they do. Today’s advisers have to listen first, consult second. Advice needs to meet clients in their own reality – their timing, pressures, ambitions and trade-offs – rather than forcing them into a predefined framework. When clients feel understood and in control, advice becomes something they engage with, not something that is simply delivered to them.
3. Advisers must understand and manage behaviour, not just money
The client-adviser relationship is built on trust and intimate knowledge of how people behave. The world is facing uncertainty and upheaval the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades. Markets are more volatile, tempers are flared, and sometimes decisions are made while emotions are high.
As a result, the adviser’s role is shifting from expert instruction to informed guidance. Increasingly, clients are not looking to be told what to do, but to be supported in making better decisions for their own reasons. This moves advice closer to coaching: helping clients recognise emotional triggers, stay anchored to long-term goals, and avoid reactive decisions during periods of stress or volatility.
In practice, this often means starting with life before numbers. When people can clearly picture what they want their future to look and feel like, financial decisions gain context and urgency. The technical work still matters but it lands more powerfully when it is connected to a tangible vision rather than an abstract target.
4. New regulations are refocusing advice on outcomes, not transactions
The Conduct of Financial Institutions (COFI) bill, which is set to be rolled out this year, is meant to move the industry away from box-ticking and towards advice that actually makes a difference in people’s financial lives. In its best form, this kind of principle-based regulation can support better engagement with clients and clearer explanations.
Should COFI be applied in the spirit it was written, it will reinforce a simple idea: advice should be judged on the quality of outcomes for clients, not on the volume of transactions completed.
5. Advisers are increasingly planning for multiple generations
As wealth moves from one generation to the next, advisers are increasingly pulled into family conversations about how that money is preserved over time – and not everyone has the same priorities and expectations.
Thus, intergenerational advice is no longer only about wealth transfer. It is about preserving what has been built, rebuilding where necessary, and helping families avoid repeating cycles of depletion. In South Africa especially, where financial resilience is often fragile and hard-won, advisers are increasingly required to think beyond a single lifetime and help families balance immediate needs with long-term continuity. When advice is truly human-centred, family considerations naturally become part of the conversation.
Taken together, these shifts point to a future where financial advice is less about products and more about people. As lives become more complex and choices more consequential, the real value of advice lies in helping individuals and families make sense of uncertainty and align money with meaning.
That human role is not being diminished by change but rather, redefined by it.
ENDS
Ed’s note: Watch EBnet.Stream’s discussion with Johan Minnie on how COFI will impact financial advice here. How does one prove conduct?
