Where have you been a financial counsellor?
Originally commenced as a Financial Counsellor with Wesley Mission Murray Street -Perth as a volunteer financial counsellor for 12 months and later the City of Joondalup for 15 years until made redundant and then moved to Centrecare Perth for a further 8 years and on leaving continued at the FCAWA as their Sector Development Officer part time.
How long have you been an FC?
Been a financial counsellor across many services for the past 25 years.
Why did you become one?
Became a financial counsellor after completing past training and while on work experience at the Wesley Mission Perth Financial Counselling Service under Manager Ms Sally Newman. Following this past work experience and as a volunteer I found my calling in life to help and support in improving the lives of other less fortunate and to be a voice for the community and disadvantaged people.
What was your first case like, and how did it shape your approach to financial counselling?
My first client case was challenging but given my past training, knowledge and skills I found it rewarding to be effective in challenging creditors and improving the outcome for the client. My approach to the future in financial counselling was that I found you learn more from the experience at the coalface with the clients and to take time to listen to the issues to be able to prioritise the issues to be managed and overcome.
Can you share any moments when you felt especially proud or moved by your work?
Over the time and through my personal growth/ knowledge and development I recall dealing with a single divorced client that had moved across from England and recently re- married and had not told his wife that he owed debts back in England for $1million which lawyers were about to take proceedings in Australia to enforce recovery of the debt. Client was very distressed with the thought of the end of his marriage and other stresses which eventually put him into a mental health unit for some weeks as he tried to end his life over this. Continued in the interim to argue the case that the client could not pay and that there were risks to his life over the matter.
My advocacy with many emails and long telephone conversations continued with a lot of pressure being exerted by the lawyers acting for the creditor. Eventually I recall receiving a phone call from a lawyer in Perth on a Friday afternoon that I had struck up an understating with to be told that the lawyers in England had instructed them to close the file and mark closed /not to be reopened under any circumstances and to be returned to them. Â Â
My conversation was of great gratitude to the lawyer, and I thanked her for her support to this client. I later informed the client at a later office interview with him following his recovery, with him giving me the biggest man hug and whispering in my ear” Robert this is amazing I cannot believe this -thank you – you just saved my life and marriage”.
Is there a particular client story that illustrates the importance of financial counselling?
I recall a client/ couple that required my assistance due to the bank pursuing them for past home mortgages debts after sale of multiple investment properties in the north of WA. They were facing potential loss of their family home and all their assets. This couple owed the bank well beyond $950k with not many options other than bankruptcy.
I managed this situation on behalf of the clients to see if the bank would forgo recovery on the basis that I believed they had loaned funds irresponsibly through multiple investment loans approved in a boom-and-bust mining town and that they may have not considered this given the amounts that were loaned.
I also raised the issues of overcommitment, and it appeared the bank based their lending on high rental income which was unstable over the years and led to the forced sale of the investment properties and the large, accumulated debt owed as a result.
Multiple complaints were made to the bank with no result and I was forced to lodge a complaint to AFCA. Further multiple conciliation meetings were held between AFCA the bank and myself until at the last meeting I raised five very important issues for the bank to consider with management having to give them all further upper management consideration.
At this point AFCA and I knew that the meeting may have been successful. In consideration I found AFCA while managing the discussions professionally they were of limited assistance in support to the issues raised by me to the bank.
Two weeks later I received a call from AFCA to inform that the bank had considered all the five issues, and they had wiped and waivered $825k of the outstanding account. In this phone call the AFCA person had spoken to her management regarding this outcome and they had advised that this was unheard of but supportive to the work and what had been achieved.
While this was a great outcome for the clients I waited over two weeks by email to get a response with them advising they were unsure of whether to accept to offer. The reason being they may not be able to pay on repayment the remainder of the account and that this would mean they would not be able to take their children on future oversees holidays.
I discussed at length what they would face in not taking the deal and they still appeared unthankful with AFCA and I waiting a further couple of months before they agreed. AFCA and I could not understand the client’s logic on this as they were risking losing a good outcome.
What do you think has been your biggest contribution to the community or sector?
I believe some of my greatest multiple achievements and contributions to the community and the financial counselling sector has been my dedication and support to improving financial counselling across WA through the initiates that I enabled while in my roles on the FCAWA board. To see the multiple improvements over this time took financial counselling out of the doldrums of the past to give it future possibilities and positive potential into the future.
What have you learned along the way?
I have learnt along the way to add to my professional knowledge and skills while further developing my personal skills to grow as an individual. More importantly I started changes to see the potential to what was possible through hard work and to always see what can be achieved if you are motivated and passionate to what you believe in.Â
Has there been any regrets – any cases you wish ended better than it did?
The case above whereby I refer to the client with the lawyers and creditors waiving the $1m account was likely the most unfortunate future outcome I saw. Regrettably I received some 12months later a contact from his wife with her informing me in my office that her husband/ my client had ended his life.
What advice do you give new financial counsellors?
From my experience I would suggest new financial counsellors entering this profession is to always take the time to listen to the client intently to be able to see what the real issues and priorities for action are. Never at the initial session give clients high expectations and assess the situation well to see what issues the client can deal with and what areas you may need to deal with. Always encourage clients to work together and alongside you to improve their future financial skills to be able to manage into the future. Always have an open attitude to learning from your peers and take advantage of all training and professional supervision.
How has FCAWA supported you in your journey?
The FCAWA has supported me over my past years in the financial counselling sector and giving me the opportunity as a previous Vice President and later President to be able to improve and direct the peak body to a more professional space.
What changes have you seen in the sector over the years, and how has FCAWA been part of that?
For some time previously financial counselling was under funded and not well recognised prior to 2006. The following years seen an ongoing improvement to support and funding to financial counselling as follows –
2004
President / Robert Evans makes a FCAWA application which is approved to secure a grant to TPA Consumer Trust develop the initial FCAWA website.
Inaugural website is developed and later launched on 27th February 2006 to assist the association and its financial counselling members.
2007
May launch of “My Money My Life” Youth Financial booklet launched by Joondalup Financial Counselling Service – Robert Evans Financial Counsellor. Youth financial booklet developed by Financial Counsellor Robert Evans to assist in educating young people navigating the pitfalls of money and credit issues in the future and independently funded to produce 10,000 per year over the past 7 years to be distributed across WA to schools and other youth.
2008–2009
FCAWA applies and granted the initial inaugural funding grant agreement to manage the new WA national debt telephone hotline. Initial application for this initiative was again completed by the President along with board members due to limited staffing. This initiative greatly improved the FCAWA workforce and funding to allow for additional administrative staff to be employed.
Department for Child Protection allocates additional funds to FCAWA following past closure of FCRP and amalgamation to FCAWA to assist with employment of staff. Government departments highlighted that there were some duplication and confusion over retaining the FCRP and that in their opinion there was only one peak body they intended to continue to fund to see this occur. FCRP is later closed as a result.
2010
FCAWA/ President negotiates directly with state government departments Office of Energy and DCP to manage the new Hardship Utilities grant (HUGS) which sees financial counsellors managing the allocation and assessment of grants to consumers in financial difficulties that would assist with grant payment to gas. electricity and water. This agreement with the FCAWA resulted in financial counsellors having their state government funding increased by 30 % and improved their salaries accordingly. Additional grant funds from the state government also allowed for the appointment of the initial executive officer and additional administration staff.
FCAWA/ President Robert Evans receives request from Water Corporation to develop a program to assist consumers in financial hardship with their water accounts. Initially Water Corp proposes a payment assistance voucher but President requests time to propose an alternative scheme that would encourage clients to manage and improve while encouraging financial management skills. President meets with Water Corp management to present the proposed Water Assist Scheme which allows for Water Corp to match repayments on overdue accounts to a set maximum amount. This scheme was well endorsed by Water Corp as an improved initiative that would work better with consumers and encourage their participation to be assisted. Later additions made by Water Corp to the scheme over the following years.
Given over the past years of the FCAWA struggling financially to run a conference with thoughts of this being every two years the board agreed to further improvements to enhance capacity to overcome this situation. Sponsorship to the FCAWA yearly conference is greatly improved by an initiative of the President (Robert Evans) drafting new sponsorship applications in coordination with administration officer Julia Cain the which sees multiple sponsorship expand in support to expand the program and become more professional.
At this time Ms Cain was the only part time administration staff member employed part time. The additional sponsorship funding saw the conference move away from the free room space at the Department for Consumer Protection (which was becoming inadequate due to increasing member numbers at the time) to being able to accommodate more professional hotel conference space  and accommodation.
FCAWA allocates funds to support financial counsellors to attend interstate conferences supported by Lotterywest funding grants.
FCAWA receives federal government grant funding of over $200k to train and bring on new financial counsellors into the sector. Training developed and rolled out to a group of around 30+new financial counsellors in partnership with the FCRP.
It should also be noted that initially when I was appointed to Vice President and later President that the association was previously underfunded and supported and lacking in board members to engage and step up to improve the situation by agreeing to take on additional project work that would likely improve the FCAWA in the long term. Therefore, over my tenure in both roles at the association over the six years it was left up to a part time administration officer Julia Cain at the time along with myself to complete together most of the funding projects and manage the improvements.
Over the recent preceding years, the FCAWA became more professional and grew substantially through the past initiatives and through support and additional funding. Such expansion and improvement as larger and better accommodated conferences, financial counsellors better funded, new projects to assist consumers approved such as Water Assist and Hugs along with many other including the FCAWA website and telephone financial counselling service.
What do you hope FCAWA achieves in the next 40 years?
To continue to grow/ expand and work on improving financial counsellors’ skills/ knowledge and enhance professional levels.
To continue to engage with all levels of government to improve funding to the sector to have longer funding period agreements and to build on the relationship for financial counselling to be seen by government as an essential community service.
State governments to give greater recognition to financial counselling and additionally fund more positions to be able to meet the emerging needs from vulnerable consumers. Increase funding to the peak body to improve support to all financial counsellors across WA.
To see future developments on the industry funding to be expanded to support the training and development of financial counsellors along with support to the state peak bodies.