The role of financial advisers has long been rooted in helping clients to make informed decisions about their finances. Traditionally, this meant applying technical expertise to complex products, tax considerations, and long-term wealth strategies. Today, however, the profession is increasingly centred on deeper client relationships, empathy, and human partnership.
According to Aldert Brink (pictured), the chief executive of Momentum Financial Planning, the most effective advisers now extend well beyond technical planning. They act as long-term partners, combining financial insight with an understanding of their clients’ personal circumstances and goals.
Beyond the numbers
Financial advice increasingly involves helping clients to navigate complex decisions and life’s defining moments.
“In the current financial landscape, empathy is no longer simply a soft skill, but rather it is a strategic capability that bridges the gap between technical data and security,” says Brink. “The value a trusted adviser brings stems from their ability to engage with the client’s lived experience. This emotional intelligence allows them to support clients during sensitive moments that an algorithm cannot touch, whether that involves navigating the anxiety of a health-related crisis or facilitating conversations around a family’s legacy planning.”
By acknowledging clients’ concerns and providing a steady, informed presence, advisers ensure financial plans are aligned with the realities of their clients’ lives.
This broader approach is also attracting new talent to the profession. A growing number of career changers in their 30s and 40s are entering financial planning, bringing diverse backgrounds and life experience that strengthen client engagement.
“Technical proficiency is merely the baseline,” says Brink. “The real work of a financial adviser happens in the uncomfortable spaces: facilitating a difficult conversation between spouses about a will or guiding a client through the implications of health-related changes to life cover. To be successful today, an adviser must be able to translate science into practical, human support.”
Why human advice still matters
As digital platforms and artificial intelligence tools evolve, questions are increasingly raised about the future role of human advisers.
“AI is an excellent tool for processing information and creating back-office efficiencies in a highly regulated environment,” says Brink. “However, financial decisions are rarely purely mathematical. During moments of vulnerability – whether it’s a sudden loss, a serious illness, or a major life transition – clients value the reassurance of a trusted adviser who can help them navigate both the emotional and financial implications. At a time of crisis, a family is not looking for support from an algorithm. They want somebody who can help them navigate through their grief and trauma while ensuring that their financial world doesn’t collapse.”
Human advisers also help clients to overcome behavioural barriers to financial planning. Many individuals struggle with what Brink refers to as the “ostrich approach” – postponing difficult financial decisions in favour of short-term gains.
“Financial planning is inherently intangible,” he explains. “Unlike purchasing a physical product, the value often lies in the future security it provides. Advisers help clients connect today’s decisions with tomorrow’s outcomes.”
When planning becomes a lifeline
For Brink, the importance of financial advice is not only practical – it is also deeply personal.
In his early 30s, he received a call that profoundly shaped his understanding of the industry’s purpose. A close friend from university – who had been the best man at his wedding – had died in a cycling accident. At the time, his friend’s wife was seven months pregnant with their first child.
“The weeks that followed were incredibly difficult,” Brink recalls. “She was facing the loss of her husband while preparing to welcome their daughter into the world, knowing her child would never meet her father.”
Despite the grief, one element of her life remained stable. Because Brink’s friend had worked as a financial adviser, his affairs were in order. He had a valid will, group life insurance, and a savings plan for his daughter.
“It did not lessen the emotional pain of the loss,” Brink says, “but it meant she didn’t have to face financial uncertainty during the most difficult period of her life. That experience reinforced for me why our industry exists – to ensure that when life’s storms arrive, families have a financial foundation that allows them to focus on healing rather than on financial worries.”
Closing the advice gap through proactive partnerships
Despite the benefits of expert financial advice, a significant advice gap remains in South Africa. Only about 9% of households engage the services of a financial adviser, meaning most navigate their finances without qualified guidance.
Research consistently shows that individuals who work with financial advisers achieve stronger long-term savings outcomes, highlighting the value of professional advice.
Brink believes advisers have an important role to play in narrowing this gap by strengthening ongoing engagement with clients.
An “engaged client”, he explains, is someone who has a clear and actionable financial plan, an up-to-date will, appropriate risk protection, and a regular review process to ensure their strategy evolves as life changes.
“For every engaged client, there are often several family members – children, spouses, or parents – whose financial stability is strengthened by that one relationship,” he says.
By focusing on these foundational strategies, advisers help clients to reframe financial protection from reluctance to long-term resilience.
“In a world of increasingly complex risks, financial advisers serve as protective partners to their clients,” Brink concludes. “Their role is to turn planning into preparedness and ultimately, to ensure that the promises made on paper translate into real security for the families they serve.”
