The Morrison government announced on Friday the release of the Terms of Reference for the Quality of Advice Review and the appointment of Michelle Levy as the reviewer.
Superannuation and financial services minister Jane Hume said that the review presented an opportunity to assess how the regulatory framework could deliver better outcomes for consumers.
Ms Hume said that the review will investigate whether there are opportunities to streamline and simplify regulatory compliance to reduce costs and duplication.
It will also assess how to improve the clarity and availability of documents provided to consumers and whether parts of the regulatory framework have created unintended consequences.
Commenting on her appointment, Ms Levy said that she was pleased to lead the review.
“I believe there are many ways we can improve the regulation of financial advice, making it easier for Australians to receive quality advice when they need it and in a form they want. I am optimistic about what we can achieve,” she said.
Ms Levy is currently a partner at law firm Allens and specialises in financial services, life insurance and superannuation law.
She is 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 and has been recognised by Chambers Asia‑Pacific for the past eight years as a leading lawyer in Financial Services Regulation and Superannuation.
The 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.
The only hope for financial advisers is the imminent change of government.
Another lawyer with no understanding of the Advice industry! The queue for the exit is likely to increase…
Another flippin review. This is mickey mouse stuff. Don’t hold your breath.
Governments can’t even agree on getting the ADF out to floods where people were dying.
Fewer elderly clients can afford advice, means more fall to scammers. Very simple.
This is a significant failure of Government. They took away Defined Benefits, replaced with Defined Contributions. Importantly, it is Advice that plugged the gap and softened the blow.
Now they have made Advice unaffordable for the middle class, just as Baby Boomers age into their vulnerable years….
Three could happen
1. They open Intra fund advice up for everything = fee for no service
2. open robo advice up = allow product providers to flog products directly with out advice
3. Open accountants to give advice
4. nothing will actually change for real financial advisers which are licence to give advice..
Jane Hume thinks ok for people to get financial tiktok and youtube from unlicensed advice from people say they are giving education then go on to tell them the best etf to invest in and how to do it while being paid a fee from that company
Another lawyer that is what is needed – not.
What is the cost of this review? And will Michelle Levy actually shake the minister’s hand when she releases her report (unlike a certain commissioner)?
In the extreme event that the legal industry gets reviewed for its ‘ethical’ practices, will a financial adviser be appointed to conduct it?
This is a disgrace.
Kelly O’Dwyer, Jane Hume, Josh Frydenberg,
Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison have done nothing but destroy financial services and advisers businesses .
Now they are clutching at anything they can throw at us to save their skins.
This Liberal Govt do not deserve one single vote from one financial adviser across Australia.
I have voted Liberal for 40 years but not this time.
They deserve to be kicked to the gutter just like they have kicked financial advisers for the last decade.
No forgiveness…too late.
Guaranteed the review makes it easier to do simple, tech enabled advice so the banks and super funds can benefit and advisers get no benefits. Call me cynical but that’s my prediction. Geez a lawyer is going to really struggle to simplify anything.
Seriously… another bureaucrat to review incompetent politicians… only in Australia
What happened to the ASIC unmet advice needs project announced in 2019, conducted in 2020 then buried by Hume? What happened to treasury’s review which was supposed to replace it? Why have the submissions been kept secret? Now we have a lawyer starting a new review and calling for more submissions? Did I fall asleep for 3 weeks and wake up on April fools day?
Remember Kelly O’Dwyer picking one of lawyer pals Catherine Walter to head up FASEA?
This sounds scarily similar.
Another conflicted lawyer, which is probably better than an incompetent judge but it is only a small improvement. This industry is finished.
“Michelle specialises in superannuation, life insurance, distribution and financial services law. Michelle’s clients include the wealth management areas of each of the major banks, life insurance companies and industry and corporate funds.”
Need I say more….
No you do not need to say any more. What a disgrace!
This is the greatest insult ever to be delivered by by the Coalition to financial planners. After promising to reduce red-tape for more than 12 months, and two rounds of submissions on the topic via ASIC and then Treasury this is what we get? Another review calling for submissions, the result of which won’t be delivered until well after the election. There are also strong hints for the reviewer to recommend relaxing the rules on intra-fund advice and robo-advice in the terms of reference. If advisers needed any further excuses to shun the Coalition and vote Labor, this is it. Good riddance Hume. You are a disgrace!
exactly!!! – uuurrrggghhhh – another review, another review, followed by another review – it’s a dog’s breakfast and does not need another review – it needs a blank sheet of paper. Pffttt Dec 16 delivery date – meanwhile Rome is burning…
Lawyers don’t have any self interest do they?
Next time im at the Butcher I’ll ask him to service my car….
Like a monty python sketch, the people responsible have been sacked and now the people reviewing the people that were responsible will no doubt be sacked.
great…another lawyer
maybe they should ask someone providing advice in the industry…. just a radical thought… given that we are in the mess we are because that wasn’t listened to in the first place…
A lawyer and a politician reviewing how the regulatory framework for advice could deliver better outcomes for consumers. Draw your own conclusions…
this should of been done 10 years ago. too late now. the horses have bolted.
Hey Jane – just flagging there are numerous ways to streamline and simplify….at this stage the advice process could not get more convoluted, we are pretty much at peak red tape / legislative overload. Looking forward to seeing what comes out of this!
Don’t set them a challenge, I am sure a lawyer can come up with another form
They’ll form the “Ministry of Funny Forms” given that challenge!!!
Hume again shows she has no idea. Merely kicking the can down the road instead of acknowledging the devastation she has inflicted on the industry.
Obvioulsy they will exclude and ignore all imput from Fiancial Advisers and just do what will enrich the overseas share holders of the big 4 banks.
Another review just what the industry needs, one more bureaucrat.
so a legal view of advice, doesn’t sound too promising but let’s hope she is pragmatic.