In response to questions from ifa, the company issued a statement confirming Westpac Life was currently the only insurer listed on the APL for BT’s bank channel financial advisers.
BT general manager for advice and private wealth Jane Watts said the firm has “an easy off APL process” for advisers to recommend products not listed, and that the company was “confident” its advisers are able to meet their clients’ needs under this system.
Nevertheless, the company acknowledged the move towards offering more products formally through its APL.
“Ensuring clients have high quality cover that meets their needs has always been the priority,” Ms Watts said.
“We will be going through a rigorous selection process supported by independent input to make sure the insurance options on our APL meet the demands we expect around the quality of product we recommend to our clients.”
The statement follows ASIC deputy chair Peter Kell’s comments on APLs before the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services last week.
“I’m not sure that I can confirm that BT and Westpac only have one [insurer on their APL] … I think we’d be a little surprised but we can take that under notice,” Mr Kell said told the joint commission when asked about the range of insurers available to advisers within the Westpac network.
Mr Kell told the joint commission that ASIC did not believe there must be a set number of products available on a particular APL, but that there is a consumer expectation that advisers will be able to choose from multiple products.
ASIC have tasked the FSC with implementing a code around APLs together with a code of conduct .
The FSC receives funding from their members …The Banks….notice the FSC has been very quite over these revelations ,Trowbridge recommended at least seven companies ,but that was way back in 2015.
How can adviser employed by these dealer groups ever possibly act in the best interest of their client when there is such limitations on the APL. If a client already has insurance, how then can the adviser make the assessment of the suitability of that product before replacing it with another insurance product without the broader APL. It is absolutely inefficient to have to seek permission to deal with a non APL product each time. Advisers are professionals who should be given the tools and training to be able to make this assessment themselves.
Whilst on the topic of best interest… when compared to what you can get from Westpac’s aligned advisers, how does Wesptac continue to justify considerably higher fees on their Wrap account when you go and see a salaried adviser? It is even worse for clients that received advice a few years ago.
Will there be similar choice on BT’s platforms? Insurance premiums funded out of Superannuation is a common strategy; and if you use the Wrap like many salaried and aligned Westpac advisers surely you should be able to have a similar choice of insurance. This was a recommendation in the 2016 Trowbridge report.
Dear Ms Watts,
Stop lying to ASIC and the general public. At least we are smarter than that, ASIC it appears is asleep at the wheel. Saying “an easy off APL process” for advisers to recommend products not listed (on the APL), you probably believe this, because you probably haven’t asked a single Westpac Planner. Perhaps you’d like to share how many off-APL sales, let alone recommendations as a number and % of advice given has occurred. I’ll have an educated guess that number is pretty close to ZERO for both.
As an ex-WFP planner, I can categorically say I tried to get off-APL approval, which was denied every time, and stopped trying after the wasted time/effort and ridiculous responses I got from the (in-house) research team. I had to leave the bank to be able to actually abide by the best interest duty and do the right thing by my clients. And those I am close to and still suffering at the bank would confirm this is still the same process, i.e. closed loop.
Stop treating the rest of us and your planner force with disdain. Give the planners some credit and they will actually deliver better client experiences – then you may get some good news reported. BT and Westpac Life have an excellent claims process and history, but we cannot suggest that every client has the same needs or is ideally suited to the one product…
Wake up! Time to start playing by the same rules as the rest of us and respect your client’s custom.
It was reported to day in the Australian ,that Ms Watts claimed 1600 clients were offered a solution Off the APL,one assumes that the Westpac house brand loaded by 10% was just not palatable by these clients Ms Watts?We all await the judgment on the class action.
Its Ok. They have spent $1,000,000,000 on the new platform. Yes that’s right 1 Billion dollars on the beast. I wonder how many platform choices these same advisers will have. Or will they simply price up the platform to recoup the spend.
But never fear, the trusty BDM is demanding planners support Panarama to save their jobs.
Will Asic save the Banks from themselves.
Will Mr Kell be off to have a look at the APLs for the Union Super Funds? How many different super options do advisers at Union Super have? A choice between conservative, balanced & growth options from their Union Super masters? How many insurance options do they have? How could one of their aligned advisers recommend that a client take out their insurance with Australian Super, for example? It’s one of the worst, if not the worst, definition in the market. Where’s Kell on this? Probably lunching with Greg Medcraft’s cousin….
The dealer group is not meeting the best interest duty for the clients of it’s Advisers.
What has been perpetuated by having 1 insurer that is vertically integrated is as blatant a break of best interest as NSG – if not worse.
Still, I don’t expect anything will be done.
Nothing has been done to date, and they would obviously know that they are in breach.
How was ASIC not aware that one of the biggest banks had their own insurance company as the sole insurer on the APL? Seems like a blatant conflict of interest, no?
No doubt they will get the other insurers to pay 3% commission to BT on all sales like NAB ?……..just when transparency was clear and commissions goingout .
Are you suggesting that a secrete commission of 3% is being paid ?That is against the law.Any lawyers care to comment?
they will throw a dart at a dartboard to select the other insurers – or rather not select their main rivals..
Mr Kell told the joint commission that ASIC …….. that there is a consumer expectation that advisers will be able to choose from multiple products.
Thus all BT and Westpac need to do is put the two worst insurers onto there APL and their advisers will be able to choose from multiple products, thus satisfying ASIC’s expectations.
BT reduced the amount of insurance companies back to one in 2013 and have been effectively been ripping off the public for 4 years. The notion that they have an easy non APL process for insurance is a straight out lie. All staff were told that there was to be no other insurance company they could deal with and they would decline other requests. Is this the same Jane Watts that managed Macquarie Financial planning? The same one that ran to BT before they announced the enforceable undertaking relating to her period of management. Maybe ASIC needs to have a look at who BT is hiring to run their advice arm. Or is it ok for poor performing managers to keep moving organisations and get away with their past. Has anyone noticed that Westpac is constantly in the news for ripping off the public. ASIC need to begin digging deeper and removing all managers who keep jumping ship. If they can do it to planners, then they should look at those that have created this mess for the industry.
A rigorous selection process ! Jane does that involve a shelf space fee?
be nice to see full transparency,Jane will Westpac retain their loaded premium offering for its own bank clients?
From the BT website; “Jane has a Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) and a PhD (Organisational Psychology)”