The current stream of bad press about financial advice can be wiped away with some cultural change, Financial Advisers (AFA) national president Deborah Kent says.

Speaking at an AFA Partner briefing in Sydney this week, Ms Kent said the media’s stance on advisers had done damage.

Criticism was renewed in recent days, when it was revealed that NAB has had to compensate more than 750 clients for $10-15 million worth of poor advice

But, “those will be fading headlines on newspapers somewhere in someone's garage, they will be forgotten”, Ms Kent says.

“There are already 2300 less advisers today than there were five years ago, this shows that cultural change is well advanced and forces of behavioural expectations are effective,” she said.

The AFA president sais that as more and more people seek financial advice, the industry will be driven to change expectations of the level and type of advice.

AFA chief executive Brad Fox says it is time to start making changes that governments and clients expect.

“This will be a place where value propositions will need to more than redesigned and reengineered. New business models not yet thought of or even heard of will shift the paradigm of financial advice,” Fox said.

“This is not an evolution inspired by technology but a revolution inspired by consumer behaviour and expectations.”