Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove has today issued a legislative instrument – on the instruction of finance minister Mathias Cormann – which will repeal the changes to SOAs agreed to as part of the now-defunct deal with the Palmer United Party on FOFA.
Under the deal struck in July, the government agreed to enact a regulation requiring SOAs to explicitly list adviser requirements including the best interest duty, disclosure of fees, a 14-day cooling-off period for financial products and the ability for clients to change adviser instructions.
The FPA issued a statement welcoming the move, with CEO Mark Rantall describing the repeal as a “good outcome” for the financial planning profession.
“We always believed that the changes put forward were already a requirement, and therefore a duplication,” Mr Rantall said. ”To this end, the appropriate consumer protections remain in place.”
A legislative instrument has also been issued which will see the grandfathering amendments agreed to by the major parties become law.
Both legislative instruments will take effect from 16 December.
Ive already got one, I use it every day to wipe my ##s.
I spoke to a person on the weekend who told me that an industry fund told them to roll their current pension with a very small Centrelink assessable income component, to a super in their partners name. They said this would reduce his assessable assets. Great Stuff! Great rule of thumb for an industry fund to tell clients. Only the client had a DB Pension as well. They are well and truly income tested. Almost no Centrelink benefit in rolling back to super. The additional cost of rolling their pension back to the spouses super, was an additional approx $2,700 pa tax within the super, compared to the pension and the super money will have no deductible income payments (all deemed) once converted to a pension at age 65. No advice doc, no protection for the client and a big vested interest for the super fund to get the money into their fund. The intra fund advice is having bad outcomes for clients.
IFA should develop a red tape dispenser.