QAR will help, but ‘real opportunity’ for industry lies with advisers, CEO says

The CEO of Diverger has claimed that while the upcoming review is a “positive” for the industry, the work advisers and their businesses do now is what will have the biggest impact.

In a new opinion piece published on ifa this week, Nathan Jacobsen wrote that the QAR proposal paper released by Treasury earlier this month is a “positive roadmap forward for the industry”.

However, he said that for many advisers and licensee businesses, it's not “the main game”.

“Most have now embedded the new rules into their operating environments, came to terms with the unreasonable complexity, and focused on working out how to run their practice more efficiently,” Mr Jacobsen wrote.

“At the same time, they are enjoying significant demand for their services, albeit challenging by finding the staff to keep up with the work.”

He argued that complexity in advice and consumer access to quality advice will continue to improve due to the recent support being shown by the Albanese government, which includes the release of a consultation paper on adviser education standards last month.

Financial services Minister, Stephen Jones, said the government would look at options to “streamline the education requirements for financial advisers” and addressed the 30 September deadline for existing advisers to pass the exam and continue to provide financial advice, saying that following the deadline, he will ask Treasury to explore how the exam can be improved, such as reducing the number of questions.

Mr Jacobsen said that with the QAR not to be released until 16 December, the industry has “businesses to run and challenges to work through”.

“The real opportunity is to focus on partnering together to transform the cost and efficiency of advice so advisers (and technology) can serve more consumers,” he wrote.

“Licensees and service providers are stepping up to help solve some of these issues and partnering with advisers to pursue the opportunity, in an environment of positive change.”

Read the full opinion piece here.

The QAR proposal paper was widely praised by industry stakeholders, with SMSF Association CEO, John Maroney, calling it “a breath of fresh air”.

“Where the proposal paper suggests removing the requirement for statements of advice (SOAs) to allow the profession to provide financial advice in a way that suits their customers, it concurs with the association's recommendations to the review that certain types of advice should be able to be provided in a simplified form,” Mr Maroney said.

“We have long argued for the need to recognise the professionalism of the sector, cut excessive red tape, and put the consumer front and centre in the advice equation.”

Speaking on a recent episode of the ifa Show podcast, QAR reviewer, Michelle Levy, said she is keen to hear feedback from stakeholders and whether her proposals could help to solve issues in the advice sector.

“So, I encourage people to think about it with an open mind to take and to be prepared to take responsibility,” she said.

“Are you doing the right thing for your customer or your client? If so, have some confidence in what you're doing and the law should support that.”

Feedback on the proposal paper is now open and closes on 23 September 2022.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.