AIOFP executive director Peter Johnston lobbied Senator Sinodinos, in the form of a live presentation, at the association’s national conference in Hobart yesterday.
“Most agree that the Ripoll Inquiry results were fair,” Mr Johnston said. “Most also agree the previous government victimised the independents and unnecessarily overburdened the industry with complexity, compliance and red tape”.
Describing the non-aligned advice sector as an “unwanted family dog”, Mr Johnston called for government intervention on issues such as disclosure of ownership of advice companies, the need for clarity on FOFA grandfathering provisions and the classification of investment platforms.
On this last issue, Mr Johnston said “platforms are universally recognised as administration services, not investment products” but that the regulatory system does not comply with this definition.
Issuing a formal response, Senator Sinodinos said he welcomes an “open discussion” on this issue and that it had not been on his radar prior to AIOFP lobbying efforts.
More broadly, Senator Sinodinos committed to a timeline by which the government will implement its pre-election FOFA repeal promises, indicating he will propose amendments to Cabinet before the end of the year, with draft legislation for presentation to parliament to be finalised “by early February”.
As reported by ifa yesterday, Mr Sinodinos said he will also be monitoring vertically integrated financial advice business models to ensure competitiveness in the industry.
I agree Graham. Leave the call centre approach to the dodgy direct life insurers and the bank owned scaled advice models. Good luck to them in meeting best interest duty – the lawyers will be rubbing their hands together. FOFA cannot guarantee that the product manufacturers won’t still try to influence the cost of what Australians pay for advice. They seem to be trying to put the boutiques out of business with their phone based and video based “advice”.
Great to see we have a government which seems to be listening to the independent IFA market. I hope they stay true to their word and follow through on FOFA repeal promises. FOFAs removal of commissions and fee structures within Corporate Super has increased the cost to give advice to the consumers. This has made it harder for people to obtain [b]comprehensive[/b] advice, especially those who need it the most as they cant afford to pay for advice personally. Now their life savings and financial planning are managed by a call centre and their investment allocation gets moved automatically into a strategy that is assumed to be appropriate purely based on their age, without considering any of their personal circumstances. A decision made by a previous government who apparently no whats right for everyone.
On the ball Peter J, hopefully you also asked to sort out TASA, compulsory exams and other issues that will have negative impacts on the industry.
What about opt-in and FDS? Get rid of that useless piece of legislation it benefits no one and will be an administrative nightmare to manage.