Speaking on the ifa Show podcast Andrew Gale and Stephen Huppert from the Actuaries Institute’s Help, Guidance and Advice Working Group (HGA) highlighted in its current state, financial regulations often make it difficult for many to access the appropriate level of advice.
It’s this very issue that inspired the creation of the HGA framework, which the institution believes can help enable “millions of people of all ages to receive support”.
“Middle Australia stands to benefit most because comprehensive personal advice is out of reach for many, but help, guidance and specific purpose simple advice at pivotal moments would significantly improve their financial wellbeing,” said Gale at the time of the framework’s release.
Gale and Hupert also believe that he completion and the delivery of the promised Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) can also help create clarity, allowing for those better outcomes to be better reached.
“The DBFO reforms can start to bring real clarity — for advisers, for super trustees, and ultimately for consumers who just want help that’s clear and affordable,” Huppert told the ifa Show.
“What the DBFO reforms and our framework both aim for is moving away from decision outcomes to decision support — giving people the tools to make confident, informed choices.”
However, the delivery of the DBFO has been a slow and arduous process, with it being roughly two years since former Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones announced the reforms following the Quality of Advice Review.
“I’m conscious that there are a wide range of views and I totally acknowledge and thank all the various players for trying to find the maximum overlap, the maximum area of consensus possible,” Mulino said.
“But I’m also conscious of the detail matters in an area like this. I want to get this right, but the next step will be to put out the disclosure legislation on what you might call 2B, so that people can then fully digest all those elements deeply.”
For Gale and Hupert however, the reforms could not come quicker.
“If we can get clarity around some of this terminology, then providers, financial advisers, and super funds can deliver services with a much greater degree of certainty about which regulatory banner they sit under — and that’s going to be beneficial for the recipient anyway,” Gale said.
He added: “Let’s get the DBFO done. Yes, there are other things to be addressed, but at least let’s get that done. It’ll provide much greater certainty to financial advisers, to trustees, and the beneficiaries of that will be the people they serve.”
To catch the full podcast with Gale and Hupert, tune in here.
