Last week, following questions from ifa, BT Financial, AMP, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and ANZ all disclosed the number of insurers their advisers can access through the APLs of their various licensees.
In response, Fortnum Financial Advisers revealed to ifa that of 12 insurers under assessment, only one is presently designated as ‘unapproved’.
“Fortnum’s approach to constructing its risk APL centres around advisers exercising professional judgement inside a professional advice framework,” a Fortnum spokesperson said in a statement.
“A robust process for assessing suitability of life insurance products for inclusion on a broad APL is fundamentally core to achieving this outcome.”
Fortnum told ifa narrow APLs can leave advisers in a position where they’re unable to meet their best interests requirements.
Responding to the recent disclosures published by ifa, Peter Thompson of Dover Financial Advisers also clarified the number of insurers his advisers have available to them on their APL.
“Dover has always had all insurers available including industry group cover, after all, they are all APRA approved,” Mr Thompson said. “It’s very easy to implement a wide APL when you are not paid any retainers by anyone.”
which one is Fortnum placed as unapproved?
Probably check with ‘Anonymous’ as he has all of the necessary skills…
Perhaps now is the time we go down the UK route and call ourselves Restricted and Non-Restricted Advisers.
“All Insurers available including industry group cover” – well that’s reassuring. Obviously the Licensee research ‘filter’ is thorough…
Davey – you’re not skilled enough as an adviser to research these things yourself, you need a dealer group to tell you?
‘sufficient quality’ is subjective…however I think what he means is that there are stringent standards on reserves; reinsurance; insurance contract act etc. I think the issues with insurance via union super funds is getting through the super trustee.
I don’t think it cuts both ways, from what I hear some of the providers are concerned about taking business from some of these licenses.
Been talking to youself again?
just another red herring. We have a completely open APL, truth is nobody works across the whole APL, and nobody needs to. An open APL just means when you need it, you may have access to an
alternative.
An please don’t throw “best interest” around every Insurance BDM who sits in front of you bandies that term around. They cant ALL be best interest, or maybe they can……. Best Interest is so subjective
Agree with Peter. All insurers are regulated by APRA. All insurers are on the Bluewater APL.
Just because life insurance offered by Union Super Funds “is approved by APRA” doesn’t mean that it’s of a sufficient quality that an adviser would recommend to clients. In most cases I’ve seen, retail cover is better quality for lower premiums.
Absolutely. But there are many instances where it would be important to retain that industry super insurance when the client has a pre existing medical condition.
Good to see Dover and Fortnum showing the industry the way forward!
Ah. Dover, the bastion of the financial planning industry [b]NOT [/b][u][/u]