Speaking at the 2018 FSC Summit in Melbourne on Wednesday, UNSW law professor and former ASIC Queensland regional commissioner Pamela Hanrahan said the regulatory scheme needs to be overhauled to remove problematic “trivia and exceptions”, but added this is unlikely to happen.
“The most difficult thing for politicians to do will be to reduce the amount of nonsense, counterproductive legislation we have at the moment,” she said.
“The last thing they’re going to do is come out of the royal commission to say to the general public ‘we’re going to get rid of three-quarters of this regime’, but we will never fix it until we do.”
Ms Hanrahan said that in the future, advisers will need to engage with regulators with a view to producing more useful regulation.
“We need to think really constructively about how we can get better quality regulation, how do we provide politicians with the cover and the support that they can trust what the industry says and not get hijacked,” she said.
“Think about participating in a constructive, non-self-interested way to get better quality regulations.”
in order to keep their job, perhaps all ASIC employees including Kell & Shipton should be made to complete a 4hr closed book exam with a 65% pass mark (inc. 75% for 1 section). Oh, by the way, no study or prepatory materials will be made available. And on top of this, they would be made to complete a Grad Dip in Business Law. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT FINANCIAL ADVISERS FACE.
Collective action is the only solution to drive the necessary reform.
Why don’t the FPA grow some b@lls instead of cowtailing to govt. Talk about weak. Pamela Hanrahan to be next CEO of FPA!
I applaud Pamela Hanrahan for her comments. I would like to know, however, why she didn’t make them and push the agenda WHILE she was in a position at ASIC to change things. Is it too cynical of me to say “too little too late”? – because unless she gets down-and-dirty with sleeves rolled up AND pushes with advisers absolutely nothing will happen if all we have are commentaries. I would nominate someone of the calibre of adviser JEREMY WRIGHT to fight our cause – great orator and switched on about the issues. Without someone like Jeremy leading the charge against ASIC et al then nothing will change to our benefit. People like Jeremy have the drive, motivation, and people & tech skills to do it well. I could not hold a candle to jeremy in this regard these days. I feel beaten – sad yes . . . but very true being honest.
If only the politicians were well educated… instead they simply guess at solutions that get fired across the table without thought for the appropriateness or cost of implementing that solution. These responsibilities seem only to be in the domain of financial advisers.
Well the first thing that needs to change is the regulator. I tried this already. I suggested they form a consultative committee of advisers when drafting Regs to make sure they achieved the regulatory outcomes but were able to be executed in a timely and efficient manner.
Idiotic regs and drafting we’re driving massive unnecessary cost into my business.
I was told that couldn’t be done as they don’t know how to find advisers. (No not joking and it gets worse).
I said place an ad in the industry rags like ifa and others. “Where would we find the money for that”!!!!
I am not kidding, this from an deputy to Kell no less.
She was a complete joke and made me lose any shred of respect I had left for ASIC.
Great to see some common sense. How about some action to follow… I encourage all advisers to motivate the industry groups to respond to the various authorities in order to minimise trivial time-wasting hoops and concentrate on getting advisers to do what they do best; meet with clients and provide appropriate advice.
Greed (sales oriented) and incompetence are the main reasons for the problems we have currently. Mere regulation cannot do the job. There are still many sales oriented advisers and FP executives running around. On the other hand, many nonsense regulations hinder the proper work of an advice oriented adviser and push up the cost and so a lot of consumers cannot afford to have advice. Politicians and consumers should be aware of this when looking at changes in the industry.
You are right. Murder has been illegal for 2000 or more but it still happens. Regulation is not the answer to everything but Australia seems to think it is
the first sensible comment regarding FP regulation from someone associated with the regulator in a long, long time.