One of the common training/education/professional development theories is the
Conscious Competence Learning Model. It explains 4 stages of learning that are particularly relevant to adults in all walks of life when learning a new concept or skill.
Stage 1 Unconscious Incompetence - People have no idea that they don't know something. It can occur when people don't know that something exists so therefore they don't know about it or it can occur when people think they understand something but in reality don't.
Stage 2 Conscious Incompetence - People know they don't know something. For example - I know that I understand the theory of how to fly a plane however I also know I don't have the skills required to do so yet. People in this area will often seek assistance from others who they consider skilled or qualified in order to do particular tasks. For example, I would seek a qualified pilot to do the flying in the event that I need to fly somewhere.
Stage 3 Conscious Competence - People are aware of what they can do. They utilise and apply their learning and skills and have to think constantly about what they are doing and why.
Stage 4 Unconscious Competence - People are so highly skilled or practiced that they can perform tasks without thinking about what they are doing and why. These people often describe themselves as following their gut.
I think that if you were to look at many of the clients of Storm (or any financial planning product) you would find a small number that fit into Stage 3, tiny number that fit into Stage 4 and that many/most of them fit into Stage 1 and 2. And in fact I would go so far as to suggest that some fit into both 1 & 2.
Stage 1 - People in this stage often don't ask the right questions as they aren't aware (1) that they need to or (2) what questions they should be asking. People thought that they had learned large amounts about how financial planning worked through the considerable hours of training and learning that they had to do as part of the Storm client seminars but were unaware of the things that they really didn't understand until it was too late.
Stage 2 - They sought professional help (that they paid big money for believing the fees were reasonable and justified) from people who were founding members of a seemingly well respected professional body called FPA and many of whom held tertiary level qualifications in financial planning.
These people knew enough about themselves to know that they didn't know enough about the industry so they asked lots of questions. Many people asked for references about the company from other people they knew and trusted (friends and family); they spoke to their bank managers (who supported the move - we know why now don't we?); they checked with the professional associations and many of the people I know did check out the company and its methods with other financial planners.
This is not a simple black and white situation guys. It would be nice if people stopped beating themselves and others up over it. There are complex legal/financial/emotional and psychological matters here.
The only black and white part of this is that Stormers are under a huge amount of stress (still) and many of them are doing their level best to get themselves out of it. Some are trying to make sure that any institution that was complicit is brought to task. For those of you desperate to apportion blame you should feel quite confident that when the time comes for blame to be apportioned and restitution to be paid (if at all) the courts will recognize the part that all parties played and take that into consideration.
As for the pages and pages of he said/she said, your fault/their fault nonsense that we have witnessed in recent weeks -
enough is enough. You are constantly covering the same ground and trampling it into a compacted mass of nonsense with very little basis in fact or even opinion worth reading such a repeated number of times. It's hard enough to see the truth in the muddy water without the continual stirring of the mud and muck to make it worse.
Perhaps you'd all be best to go away and cool your heels for a while. Perhaps even you might like to choose to utilize some selective ignoring of parties that you know you don't (and never will) agree with.
As it comes dangerously close to the first anniversary of the suicide of one of the Storm Financial clients extremely close to me I would dearly love to see a degree of decorum and understanding between members of this forum.
cheers
Maccka