The creators of a new reality TV show featuring financial advisers

The creators of a new reality TV show featuring financial advisers hope the show will do for advisers what MasterChef did for chefs – boosting our profile even if we don't appear on the show. 

The show, Your Best Interests (YBI), goes into pre-production next month and is set to air early 2014.

Negotiations are currently being held with free-to-air channels, which the show’s creators – evolution media group (emg) – declined to name due to commercial sensitivity.

The series will pair Australians currently facing a life-defining moment with financial advisers who can help them. Creators say a broad audience will get to see what advisers do and the value of advice.

“The public traditionally have a poor understanding of what advisers do. Advisers are not understood. But advisers change lives, it’s very, very emotional stuff,” emg managing director Marcus Field told Wealth Professional.

A recent survey  found only 15% of Australians use a financial adviser.

The show, which embeds advice into real consumer story lines, will have an “entertainment core”, said Field.

“Often the life events that prompt people to seek advice – such as marriage, buying a new home or being made redundant – are the events that bring the greatest emotion. This makes good TV.”

According to Field, the eight to 10 advisers featured will become celebrities with significant public profiles.

But advisers in general will gain a boost, much in the same way cooking shows have popularised the chef profession, said Field.

“Hopefully YBI will do for advisers what MasterChef did for chefs.”

The series is complemented by a web version of the show, featuring around 30 to 40 smaller story lines over the course of the year. The Association of Financial Advisers is collaborating, and AFA members will be represented on the show’s website.

AFA chief executive Brad Fox called the series a “game-changer” in making the public aware of what financial advisers really do.  

There has already been great interest in the series, with 93 applications from consumers wishing to appear on the show. Forty-six advisers – chosen from a recent AFA conference – have been through casting calls.




We aren't on the show yet but we have been helping & advising since 1984

You are welcome for lunch as a first step

 John McAuliffe