Following the announcement on Friday, the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) executive director Peter Johnston issued an open letter to financial services minister Jane Hume addressing the appointment of the Allens Partner, which has been seen by ifa.
In the letter, Mr Johnston directly addressed Ms Levy’s appointment, asking Ms Hume to respond to a series of questions and statements, particularly around the fact that the review is scheduled to be released in December, months after the federal election has taken place.
“With Ms Levy reporting by December it is obviously post the federal election, which is far from ideal with the advisers holding your government accountable for its past handling of our industry,” the letter read.
“Your government’s actions and consequences have been well known over the past 5 years, surely Ms Levy is quite aware of the general circumstances and can provide an interim report before the election for your government to be judged on?
“This sequence will give the advice industry an opportunity to assess whether you are serious about eliminating the unintended and intended consequences of the FASEA, LIF and other legislation you have introduced over the last 8 years before they vote at the election.”
Meanwhile, the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) welcomed Ms Levy’s appointment and the release of the terms of reference for the review.
“The FPA welcomes the Quality of Advice review as the perfect opportunity to measure and assess the impact of all this regulatory change on the profession, and address the unintended consequences created such as the tick a box, rules-based, compliance-heavy advice process that financial planners are currently required to comply with,” FPA CEO Sarah Abood said.
“It will also set a framework enabling financial planners to provide affordable, engaging, scalable and professional advice.“
Similarly, the SMSF Association CEO John Maroney applauded the news, saying Ms Levy will bring a “the necessary expertise and experience to this critical issue of over-regulation that is confronting the financial advice industry”.
“Aside from her legal work, her roles as a member and former chair of the Law Council of Australia’s Superannuation Committee and a member of the ATO’s Superannuation Industry Stewardship Group make her ideally suited to this position,” Mr Maroney said on Monday.
The Quality of Advice review will invite submissions from the public and consult with stakeholders, including consumers, industry, and regulators.
A report will be provided to the government by 16 December this year.
READ MORE: ‘Entirely in the hands of the Minister’: Key exclusion in Quality of Advice review
Another Lawyer …. Jane you should be choosing someone in Finance … someone who actually understands the process
Stephen Jones if and when elected will however report solely to Union Super Funds. He’ll say whatever to get in but upon election Industry Super Funds are this puppets’ Master. I suggest these “angry” Planners if not wanting to work in call centres at Hesta, stop blaming the Government and start looking in the mirror at their own education standards and representation before being fooled.
Seems odd that some people think the Party that decimated Advice in 2009, called for 110% of the Royal Commission to be implemented, said FASEA changes would be watering down consumer protection measures are the solution.
Labor did not decimate financial advice. They made negative changes, but consulted with us and it was tolerable. The coalition has destroyed businesses and careers, forced costs for consumers to go through the roof, presided over a mass exodus, and ignored our pleas at every step. I will be voting Labor. Can’t believe I am saying that, but I have no choice. The coalition must be held to account for the harm they have caused. My family and many of my clients will be swinging to Labor as well. Multiply that by many thousands. Best of luck with your coalition fan club of 1.
So you are going to vote Labor, and in the process completely decimate the financial well-being of your entire client base. Good one.
Hume doesn’t want to reduce red tape or make life easier for advisers. She cancelled ASIC’s review into affordable advice which commenced in 2019, and handed it to treasury after they had completed a pile of work. Now she has ditched the treasury review and kicked the can down the road further with this new Levy review. It is an offensive delaying tactic right before an election. The appointment of Levy tells us what Hume wants. Levy sells legal advice to product manufacturers. She will deliver her clients what they want ie
intrafund concessions so they can bypass advisers and line their pockets by selling direct to consumers. This is Hume’s agenda all along. Eradicate financial advisers and hand all control to her former (and likely future) employers – the institutions.
Bang on the mark. Actions speak louder than words and Hume has been very clear with this.
The Liberal Party has not listened to people in financial planning and therefore I no longer listen to them. I personally hope they are wiped out at the upcoming Federal Election
FPA is stuck on the fence trying to be both an industry association and a professional association. In the end they aren’t doing either well, and are alienating everybody. AIOFP and AFA can perform the industry association role well enough. It’s time for FPA to get off the fence and become a proper professional association.
That would mean having to actually work to make a living…not going to happen!
Yes we need a Professional Association and representation and Advocacy. I would say the FPA is struggling to be even called an Industry Association. Seems like the FPA made the decision to sell conferences, webinars, support services and CFP initials with the occasional press release about the wider Financial Planning Industry.
Do the FPA and the SMSF Association really expect a lawyer to simplify the regulations? At least Peter Johnston has some idea what a lobbyist is supposed to do.
I never understand why they don’t get the practitioners to run these reviews!
They might get told what works then and not what they want to hear
Peter Johnston This is a good response and spot on as December is too far away. unfortunately sending it to Jane Hume is a waste of time. She has no interest in engaging with the industry and has a tick the box approach across the whole industry. This was evidenced when she spoke to Stockbrokers Association annual conference and displayed her arrogance for the sector and did not answer one question. Hopefully she will be gone after the next election and possibly you should engage with the opposition labor shadow minister who appears to want to engage with the industry.
Hume is gonski on the highway into opposition and Jones wants to be the next best friend for the industry full of promises…Good luck to those advisers who remain in what might be a great profession to be part of in the future just not now…
Stephen Jones has turned up to the last 2 AIOFP national conferences. Unlike anyone from the LNP..
At the conference he has clearly understood the real issues and responded.
Hard to believe it but a Labor politician who accepts industry funds are not the sole answer is a vast improvement on a Minister who thinks institutions are the solution of choice.
It took Jones a while, but he eventually woke up and realised financial planners have had a gutful of this Coalition atrocity. If he plays his cards right in government, and makes meaningful changes, he might keep a portion of us on their side. We would be very good allies for Labor, given most of us and our clients are traditionally conservative. I don’t think Labor ever dreamed it would be possible to win us over, but then Hume came along and gift-wrapped us for Labor, in a nice little box wrapped in red-tape.
Stephen Jones wanted to abolish risk commission which will purely destroy the entire life insurance industry and thus the Australian people whilst building Industry superfunds. You also tend to forget that the ALP before even reading the Hayne RC papers stated categorically that if they won the last election they would immediately implement every recommendation. The LNP have been bad but the other option of the ALP would have been and will be disastrous.
Between LIF, Hume’s smorgasbord of bad regulation, and the mental health pandemic, personal insurance advice is dead anyway.
BTW Jones has done a backflip on abolishing mortgage commissions in spite of Hayne’s recommendation. He refinanced his own mortgage via a commission based mortgage broker and was so happy with the result he’s a convert. Unfortunately for people to experience the full tangible benefits of insurance advice they need to claim, which is far less common and less desirable than refinancing a mortgage. It’s well worth listening to the ifa interview with Jones to get a better understanding of our potential future minister.
Stephen Jones if and when elected will however report solely to Union Super Funds.