First agreed to as part of now-redundant negotiations with the Palmer United Party over FOFA, the financial adviser register will from today publicly list all individuals authorised to provide personal advice, as well as any previous EUs or ASIC banning orders, as well as licensing details, including the “controller” i.e. parent company of the relevant licensee.
ifa understands this last point was one of the more contentious issues debated by the AFSL Working Group made up of industry association representatives and lobbyists, but that ASIC was ultimately convinced ownership dislcosure was worthy of inclusion.
Speaking to ifa recently, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg listed the register as one of a number of initiatives that will raise consumer confidence in the financial advice sector.
However, some commentators have criticised the register’s scope and focus.
Former CBA financial adviser Jeff Morris – a whistleblower on poor advice practices at the bank and consumer advocate – told ifa the register does nothing but “paper over” the industry’s problems.
“The register itself is part of a bigger smokescreen to minimise, indeed trivialise, the deeper problems in this industry,” Mr Morris said.
“[The problems are] not all about planners or even ‘rogue’ planners but about institutions flogging product by all means fair or foul.
“The planners are just the pawns in this game and like pawns [are] liable to be sacrificed when things go wrong, as they frequently do.”
Mr Morris said the register will be unable to accurately reflect prior adviser wrongdoing because only official ASIC enforcement actions will appear.
“The recent NAB financial planning scandal emphasises the problem – with 41 planners bad enough to sack or move on and 8 breach reports filed – [but] none of this will show up on the register unless ASIC took successful enforcement action based on the breach reports,” he said.
“In the well-known case of NAB planner Graeme Cowper, however, ASIC did not do so, citing lack of resources.
“Graeme Cowper will thus show up on the register as a ‘cleanskin’ yet he was bad enough for NAB to get rid of.”
Adviser Claire Mackay of Quantum Financial – who sits on an ASIC advisory panel – also criticised the register as “bronze when it could have been platinum”.
Speaking at the ASIC Annual Forum in Sydney last week, Ms Mackay said advice managers and executives should also be listed.
“My concerns, with something like the adviser register, is it is only five years, it’s only advisers [and] it’s not the supervisors of the advisers,” Ms Mackay said.
However, Adviser Ratings spokesman Christopher Zinn issued a statement this morning welcoming the register as a sign of the “power for technology to drive transparency”.
Meanwhile, BT Financial Group has pointed to the traction received by its own Adviser View website, which has garnered over 50,000 unique page views and 40,000 adviser searches since launch, according to a spokesperson.
The financial adviser register can be accessed here: https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/investing/financial-advice/financial-advisers-register
Adviser Claire Mackay of Quantum Financial who sits on an ASIC advisory panel also criticised the register as bronze when it could have been platinum.
Claire gives it a Bronze I would have thought the award should have been Brown !
@Leo.
That info will appear in May apparently.
Doesn’t appear to include qualifications? RG 146 not differentiated to those with CFP/ Masters.
So Jeff Morris thinks the main issue is institutions flogging product by fair means or foul?
Surely institutions flogging product by FAIR means is the basis of a capitalist democracy? I think nearly everyone agrees that they shouldn’t be allowed to do it by foul means, and that has largely been reined in now with FOFA. But Jeff Morris wants to go further and stop them from promoting themselves and their products altogether?
Unfortunately Jeff’s original brave stand and noble intentions seem to have been overtaken by a love of the limelight and a desire for pure revenge.
This is definitely a step forward in the right direction! But I must admit, it lacks some spice considering it cost $5M to build!!! My only suggestion is that each listing on the register has its own URL, so advisers can link back to it via their website or Linkedin, rather than making their prospects and consumers search themselves.
Surprised asic had the balls to list the parent company, considereing millions of dollars is spent keeping consumers in the dark about vertical integration. would of loved to be a fly on the wall of those meetings
I agree with you John. Once qualifications are also on there a consumer will be able to see length of service and education standards. Will they bother to look first, well that’s their problem I guess. Just hope ASIC uses all this information wisely…for example…maybe a national adviser exam should apply only to lesser qualified and lesser experienced advisers. Same with SOAs on smaller investments/risk. Give lesser qualified/experienced advisers some incentives rather than pummeling everyone.
No John, the silver bullet is banning asset based fees – you mustnt have been listening to the anointed one Mr MC Brown
Finally there is a register which shows ALL people licensed to provide Financial Advice. The dodgy operator selling property developments masquerading as a Financial Adviser will not make it onto this register. Consumers actually have a way of confirming that the guy they are handing over their life savings to is authorised to handle this. This is a good thing. Stop whinging Jeff Morris, this was never designed to be a silver bullet. It is a great step forward for the industry