In a recent communication to members, AIOFP executive director Peter Johnston said the next six months would be a political “perfect storm” for advisers in seeking to make their voices heard.
Mr Johnston said the association was targeting eight marginal Coalition seats around the country – Chisholm, Bass, Longman, Wentworth, Braddon, Swan, Boothby and Casey – with a range of demands including relaxation of education standards for experienced advisers and raising commission levels under the LIF rules.
“We want these politicians going back to ‘head office’ assisting our cause through fear of losing their seat,” he said.
“The Coalition has only a three seat margin from 2019, [so] it will be a close election again.”
With some of the seats being held by as little as an 0.5 per cent margin, Mr Johnston said advisers would have maths on their side by taking a unified stance on these issues.
“When you consider that each electorate is around 100,000 votes the maths is easy – 1 per cent represents 1,000 voters,” he said.
“If we have 50 advisers with 200 clients each in an electorate, that’s 10,000 potential votes or 10 per cent of clients angry over compliance costs they are paying for.”
Communications sent to the MPs in marginal seats detailed proposals including a relaxation of educational standards for experienced advisers, suggesting those with 10 or more years’ industry experience should not have to attain a full bachelor degree.
In addition, the proposals called for an increase in risk advice commission levels to 85 per cent and the scrapping of annual fee consent forms, which the association said were “unneccessary duplication”.
“Working Australians are required by law to make superannuation contributions their whole working life; we believe they should be entitled to affordable and professional advice when the time comes to plan for retirement,” the association said.
Thanks Peter, I love your passion to help advisers and the industry regardless of your method. Your heart is in the right place and it is a shame that some advisers can’t see it.
BTW Wentworth is not really a marginal seat. It was briefly held by an independent after Turnbull (the sitting member) got shafted as PM. But that was just a protest vote by Turnbull loyalists at the time, and time has moved on. Wentworth is safe Liberal.
Great work Peter.
Good to hear from you Albo.
I think this latest suggestion from Peter Johnston belongs to be where his idea to mount a High Court challenge to retain fees for no service and his push to get Financial Advisers to join a trade union are, in the rubbish bin. Welcome to the new age of well trained professional advisers Peter, who make a good living by charging clearly disclosed fees for quality advice to people who are prepared to pay for it.
And don’t care about the clients who can’t afford it?
Don’t forget their plan for a protest march in Martin Place!
Or Peter Johnston talking up Jack Flader’s integrity.
Wow looks like AOFPI have done it again… talk about no idea. Peter and this mob are such dinosaurs they have forgotten they are a already extinct!
“The youth can walk faster but the elder knows the road”. Your move Alphabet soup – all waiting for your wisdom – but I can’t hold my breath as long as I once could.
Not too sure what I think about the AIOFP. There guest speaker is Jacqui Lambie at their 2021 conference…the mother of Regulatory red tape dragging Accountants selling timber plantations before Cabinet/ the media and calling them Planners. Definitely won’t be attending that gig
I think having Jacqui Lambie as guest speaker at their conference says quite a lot about AIOFP. None of it good.
Peter’s heart is in the right place but tackling via marginal government seats is not the way – clients only care when we tell them the red-tape is killing the game; after they’ve heard the whining they don’t care anymore. The associations need an attack that is concentrated, unified and targeted on the 5 or 6 bullet points that matter most.
Does anyone seriously believe that the (new) education standards/requirements are going to be relaxed ? And as for the exam – anybody who has not already passed it should probably look elsewhere for gainful employment.
Dr Burries, you are a moron! Some of us were battling cancer or other “LIFE” related events and didn’t want to waste our precious time and can easily pass this stupid test with basically no study needed whenever we like….. oh, except for the “Behavioral” garbage that one of the FASEA board members wrote a book about to make an extra buck. How the hell did this get added to an “ETHICS” exam if not for the sole purpose of making money via sales of a book related to a theory that nobody I know in the industry uses?????? Hmmmm, conflict of interest anyone? Anyone?
It’s Burry – thankyou. Given the length of time from inception to the newly extended deadline, a medical excuse is no excuse at all. If the examination was as easy as you say, why have so many advisers not attempted it or not passed it. Zero to do with conflict of interest.
Look I am all for the support for our profession but the way this article is written its like this guy is relying on clients to actually give a toss and complain for us. I am sure there are more pressing issues for clients other than their adviser having a few more overheads.
No, their issue is that their fees are going up. Or if their pension balance drops below a certain level than as a % of the balance it becomes too expensive to keep an adviser looking after them. Simple, why can’t advisers see this? Maybe they only work with HNW clients to start with and are too good for the average retiree client that needs our help as much as anyone else.
Yep, I’m sure Risk Insurance Commissions are top of mind for the local constituents.
“Dear Client,
Thank you for business over the years. I currently don’t earn enough commission from risk insurance policies that I sell. I believe this issue is of real importance to our local community. Please sign this petition to our local member, so we may have this great injustice dealt with.
I look forward to reviewing your insurance policy in 3 years to assess it’s suitability for your current circumstances.”
What a waste of time. Advisers time would be better spent getting on and doing what is required to provide financial advice from a education perspective. The times of getting a CFP out of the cereal box are gone.
I dont think there is any point trying for higher commissions on insurance. The advisers who still operate in this space have learned to deal with this and just focus on policies with higher premiums. Just remove the 2 year claw back and let the insurers speak to each other about the churners and stop accepting business from these “advisers”.
The education requirements are important though. Forcing an adviser with 20 years experience to go back to university for no benefit (other than the profitability of universities) is ridiculous. When we went to university originally we only had to worry about paying rent and buying goon bags so we had so much more time. Now we have mortgages, famailes and businesses to run and no time to waste on a piece of paper which benefits us or our clients in no way.
AND FACEA. What a joke. The fact that only advisers have to do this rubbish and not bankers and mortgage brokers (who were the reason for the Royal Commission in the first place) is a joke.
Weird strategy. Peter and AIOFP want an Albanese Labour government (maybe another ALP/Green coalition)? How’s that going to help AIOFP members and their clients? More onerous legislation and compliance. I think the ALP and Greens hate financial planners more than the Lib/Nats do. Any Lib/Nat MP who speaks out in favour of financial planners will turn more of their constituents off than ever gain. The general public dislike financial planners more than the ALP/Greens do.
Personally, at this stage the election will be most likely in 2022 (late March) and Albo/ALP probably look like another stint in Opposition.
I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. Trying to make life easier while ignoring the real killers – compliance, vertical integration and eternal lookbacks.