Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI) chief executive Christine Cupitt has endorsed Treasury’s proposal to spread the CSLR special levy across other financial services sub-sectors, while also encouraging the Federal Government to chip in.
Ahead of a roundtable on Friday with Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, Cupitt said that the CSLR’s funding model currently represents a “de facto business tax [for], and disproportionate burden,” on advice businesses.
While the scheme is important for victims of financial misconduct, she added, “the government needs to take a fairer approach”.
As above, this fairer approach would include distributing the CSLR levy across industry sub-sectors beyond personal financial advice.
Treasury’s CSLR reform proposal paper, the consultation for which closes 22 May, one option would be to implement a “waterfall” framework whereby different sectors would contribute to the special levy in circumstances where it exceeds the $20 million advice sub-sector cap. (Notably, this has been the case for every special levy since the scheme’s commencement.)
Under this framework, the primary sub-sector – advisers – would “only” pay up to $20 million. After that, connected sub-sectors, essentially any financial firms with an AFCA membership, would pay up to $40 million per sub-sector, and all retail-facing sub-sectors would cover the remaining balance.
According to Cupitt, spreading the scheme’s costs across related entities, and increasing the government’s contribution, would help make the scheme more “sustainable in the long run”.
She argued, “Risk advisers aren’t a threat to Australians’ savings; instead, they help them access peace of mind and financial security when they need it most.”
Why do I as a risk only specialist get rorted for money from the actions of wealth advisers, investment and super fund managers and advisers each year? I am not even licenced to provide wealth advice. Absolute robbery.
Agree with CALI for once