The company’s research found that 76.1 per cent of Australian advisers believe the outlook for their practices is for growth in 2018, with 52.2 per cent believing the financial advice industry was in for at least a ‘strong’ year.
Speaking to ifa, CoreData economist Andrew Inwood said the results were unexpected.
“I broadly expected the lens of the royal commission to suppress the business growth expectations but it hasn’t, they don’t think it pertains to them, they think it pertains to the licensees,” he said.
Mr Inwood said the advice industry has been “in the trenches for 10 years” with regard to changes in regulation, noting that advisers have been “under review pretty solidly” for the last decade and many advisers were now accustomed to it.
“The big surprise was that they’re ready for this, they’re kind of inured to the shock of yet another thing. Humans have this kind of coping mechanism which is hard-wired into us psychologically, where if you’re in a stressful time, that stress becomes normal,” he said.
“Superannuation, home-loan distribution and insurance haven’t really been reviewed in that time, and now they’ve been thrown into this review, so for them they’ve been on the sidelines observing it but now they’re a part of it. That’s where the pressure’s going to be.”
What are the chances that the FIRC will look at the practice of Union SUper Funds declining claims to keep their numbers down to play in the bonus pool, even when the underlying insurer approves the claim?
Why should advisers be worried? What more can be done to them? The people who should be worried over dodgy practices are the FSC for example, obviously the banks but also the insurance companies and industry funds and even the industry bodies the FPA and AFA. Lets hope the Royal Commission can expose the dodgy practices by these groups.
Advisers have been constantly hammered by the lies and deceptions and political coercion of union funds over the last 10 years. If the Royal Commission finally exposes the dishonesty and dodgy practices of union funds, that will be beneficial for advisers. Even more importantly, it will be beneficial for consumers.
Perhaps the FIRC will look at the ‘referral partner’ arrangements for many Union Super Funds. You can only charge fees if you recommend that the member stays with their Union Super Fund, cant take comms on insurance recommendations and cant get paid if u recommend insurance that isnt offered by the Union Super Fund. So how any adviser can operate under the Best Interest Duties with those parameters is beyond me. But will these practices attract the eye of ASIC??? Not in my lifetime!!! Sometimes I think ASIC stands for Australian Super Is Cool….
Some of those union fund referral partner arrangements are with the FPA. They are yet another example of behaviour which is completely inappropriate for a professional association.