Speaking at an event in Sydney last night hosted by the Value Alliance – an initiative of financial services PR firms Pritchitt Partners and 64 Media – Senator Sinodinos opened up about the thinking behind the amendments to FOFA.
“The last thing we wanted – and this is where the rubber hits the road – was… a situation where we were raising the cost of actually providing advice and making it harder for Australians to actually get advice,” he said.
“One of my aspirations in this job is to make sure as many Australians as possible get access to affordable, good advice.”
The Assistant Treasurer said too many Australians are “making financial decisions for themselves in an ill-informed way” and that the government seeks to help the financial advice profession play a role in combating this social problem.
“Until you get someone sitting down with you … provoking the right sorts of questions, I don’t think you’re going to come to the [right] answers,” he said.
Commenting on Industry Super Australia’s call to hold a “thorough assessment” of the reforms – despite the fact that Treasury has already released a regulatory impact statement finding no adverse impact of the FOFA amendments on consumers – Mr Sinodinos said he was looking forward to “discussing the pros and cons” and having frank discussions with critics, both inside and outside parliament.
Yeh thanks for that Gem Branko. Only someone with ISA alignment would suggest that advice can be reduced to what super fund you chose and also suggest that ISA funds are the best performers. You need to get out more.
One of my aspirations in this job is to make sure as many Australians as possible get access to affordable, good advice. Me too Mr Sinodinos! As Gerry said, too bad that few people can afford to pay me for the 10+ hours involved in putting together an SoA to assist them to set up a savings plan and discuss basic wealth protection.
I also have a good idea to make advice affordable and acceptable. Get rid of 50 page advice documents every time I sense a client approaching. Can’t even have a basic simple discussion with a client without compliance jumping on me telling me to do another SOA….it is a serious burden, it hasnt stopped poor advice, it never will.
Wake up and smell the coffee financial planning….people don’t want to see us, we charge too much. Can’t remember the last time I gave advice to a young family, maybe 10 years ago.
I attended last nights presentation by Senator Sinodinos and let me say the senator has both vision and passion for the future of the Australian financial services industry. The senator gave examples of global free market, which is highly encouraging. The senator has a distinguished career inclusive of his position with the Howard government. It needs to be said the Howard government ran a surplus. The job of the financial planner is to create a surplus for their client’s retirement. So far as the senator’s critics are concerned, there is a very simple question that needs to be asked “what would you prefer to retire on, Costello’s surplus or Swan’s deficit?”. The senator is working very hard to deliver an environment for the benefit of all Australians. Stop the criticism and let him get on with the job. We need more people like senator Sinodinos in government to provide the direction that has been lacking during the previous two terms.
Wouldn’t the best advice be ‘stay in an industry led super fund. They’re outperforming all other funds?’
5 Words
Tax
Deductible
Financial
Planning
Advice
One of my aspirations in this job is to make sure as many Australians as possible get access to affordable, good advice.
The sooner the better Senator! The longer this is delayed, the greater the unintended consequences and similarly the possibility for heartache and the adverse financial effect on families who lose a bread winner to illness or injury or even death as well as the delay in achieving a livable lifestyle in retirement.
Making advice fees tax deductible is a no-brainer. The ‘loss’ off government tax revenue will be dwarfed by the saving in social welfare costs. As Nike say “Just Do It”.
Well said, common sense prevails!!!
This may be simplistic way to look at the issue but why not make the cost of accessing financial advice a general tax deduction? At present this may be a reason that people don’t use this kind of service even though the benefit could change them financial lifes. It will be seen as a visible benefit to a lot of people, and provide them with the incentive to make that call.