While the body said it supports the phasing out of commissions on investment products, it noted the law introduced yesterday has no additional details or steps in place to ensure customers will benefit from the change.
The legislation has not barred commissions being charged to customers instead through investment fees, the FPA said, with the association calling for clarity on rebates of commission fees and monitoring of arrangements.
The bill has allowed 17 months for grandfathered commissions to be expelled, setting a deadline of 1 January 2021.
Dante De Gori, chief executive of the FPA, said the association has recommended the change could take up to three years if the government was to act to avoid consequences for consumers and the financial services sector.
“Removing commissions must result in a genuine reduction in product fees or the rebating of the commissions to consumers, and we haven’t seen details of how the government expects this will work,” Mr De Gori said.
“More than 50 per cent [of] FPA members have already made the transition and derive no revenue form commissions on investment and superannuation products.
“So, it’s not about whether our members are willing, they are, it’s about making sure the transition is done carefully and diligently to protect the interests of everyone, especially consumers.”
The body is also concerned retirees could lose favourable tax and pension treatments on their existing investments if they are forced to move to new products, with the bill not including any protections against the impact.
This clown DeGori has to be kidding. NOW he comes out with his sacred pronouncements. They say better late than never but sadly, for the 16 advisers not with us anymore, he is far too late this time to make a difference. He is nothing more than a bad joke in the industry now and a puppet for the life and investment companies. I couldn’t think of an entity more irrelevant than this clown in our industry right now and HE has made this of himself, nobody else has done it. Get into court with the other advisers championing our cause and you ‘may’ have a slight chance of being taken seriously again and earning your obscene remuneration you get for ‘free’ from hardworking advisers.
love you danfe, please treat your monobrow
Just got off the phone with netflix to find out when they are running the latest comedy show The FPA
Dante, where you been mate. Bit too late. Asleep at the wheel
What a Joke the FPA has become. After over 20 years membership I decided not to renew this year. Thanks for nothing.
Too late as always FPA unlike the mortgage broker bodies who were on the front foot you achieve nothing. Just stick to selling junk training and getting sponsorship from the insto paymasters.
Hey Dante, if you want to go into bat for advisers you should have done it re education and FASCEA and better RPL for your CFP program instead of this rubbish.
Trail commissions are dead and buried and shame on advisers who are still collecting them in return for doing SFA…
We eliminated all trail commissions (bar insurance) by proactively moving clients to current non commission products around a decade ago…
FPA trying to stay relevant?
Fee’s paid by consumers will remain the same and cost of advice will increase. What the large organisations wanted all the time.
Hahahaha really. FPA & Dante, Bit late now brother. Get a grip on things. You need to be ahead of the game mate.
I read in another article 16 advisers have taken their lives so far this year due to our government & industry not thinking things through thoroughly before implementing………it is really sad
Always after the horse has bolted!