Ethics in financial planning : myth, fact or rhetoric paradox?

Purpose: This paper examines ethics in financial planning in the context of the events that have occurred in the Australian economic and regulatory environment in the last decade and provides empirical evidence of the ethical behaviour of financial advisers in Australia. Design/ methodology/ approach: A mixed methods research design was employed using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with financial advisers and clients. Client participants were randomly recruited using the Unaddressed Mail Service (UMS) and financial adviser participants were randomly selected from Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) holders/representatives. The study used qualitative data mining software (Leximancer) and statistical software (SPSS) to analyse the results. Findings: Clients ranked financial advisers highly on their technical competence but lowest on social/ethical awareness, nonetheless clients generally found their most recent financial adviser to be ethical and possessing the necessary technical competencies. Furthermore, clients rated the ethical values of financial advisers as more important than technical competence and advisers were found to genuinely care for their clients. Both clients and advisers acknowledged that rogue advisers give other more ethical advisers a bad name and that education has an important role to play in this regard. Practical / social implications: Findings support both a code of ethics and ongoing professional development for advisers and suggest an ethics curriculum is desirable. Originality: This is the first study to explore ethical behaviour of financial advisers in Australia from both the client and adviser perspectives using a mixed method approach