Responding to questions from ifa in the wake of this morning’s confirmation that Westpac Life is the only insurer listed on the APL for BT’s bank channel financial advisers, Commonwealth Bank clarified the number of insurers on its licensees’ APLs.
Commonwealth Financial Planning’s retail bank planners have three insurers listed on their APL, while six insurers are listed on the APL for CFP planners who advise customers with more complex or specialised needs. Planners servicing the bank’s relationship managed customers have access to a total of seven insurers.
Advisers licensed under Count Financial have seven insurers listed on their APL, a spokesperson for Commonwealth Bank explained to ifa, and Financial Wisdom’s APL includes 10 insurers.
Last week, the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services challenged ASIC deputy chair Peter Kell over the effectiveness of APLs that included only one insurer, with Mr Kell explaining that while ASIC doesn’t believe there should be a set number of insurers included on the list, there was a consumer expectation they will have access to multiple products.
On the basis that a product comparison is required in the client’s SoA, how does the adviser provide a compliant document with only one insurer on the list?
Very easy to provide a compliant SoA when there is no legal obligation to provide a product comparison other than to their existing product if they have one in the SoA.
A product comparison to other products might be a requirement of your dealer but is not a legal requirement.
Exactly. As long as the consumer is better off from the switch, it is perfectly compliant to have chosen the new product from a selection of 1, 3, 11 or 28 insurers. If the planner is branded as CBA then the consumer is probably only expecting to be offered a choice of 1.
If the planner is branded as Fin Wis or Count, it is still compliant to offer a choice of 1. However it could be argued that it is misleading and deceptive for them to do so, as their branding implies a product agnostic advice firm, rather than part of CBA. If the govt is unwilling to regulate against institutional brands passing themselves off as independent, perhaps it’s time for a test case under the misleading & deceptive conduct rules?
The General Manager of CBA FP (responsible for 750 Branch based Advisers) has no Financial Planning qualifications on their LI profile or any licensed advice experience. That is, there is no record of them on the FAR.
Does the GM give personal financial advice? Pretty sure Harry Triguboff isn’t himself a licensed builder but he builds a lot of of apartments. The GM manages people and processes and as long as they know what is expected of their staff and take responsibility for the corporate wrong-doings (and herein lies an issue with all banks) then whether they have the ability to be licensed or not is irrelevant .
Triguboff actually has some pretty good, on the tools, building and construction experience as a younger man. Nice try though Geoff. The point stands.
And what % of insurance sold in House CBA is non comminsure in past.
And I wonder how much AIA they promised to sell now it’s sold ?
Has ASIC finally seen a problem with vertical integration ?
I think we all know the answer to that question!
I bet you don’t, you may THINK you do but would be surprised
Yeah, let’s just ban everything we don’t understand…let’s also ban second and third level thinking while we’re at it ’cause no-one seems capable of it anyway.
What about looking into how many platforms are on the APLs of the big instos. I think you’ll find that to be extremely narrow given this is where they make the most money. Advisers are expected to research what is the best product for clients but how can they do this if the licensee closes the APL for self interest. ASIC need to get their act together and look at the big licencees
How many insurers do industry funds use.?
So true!
I have an APRA regulated insurance provider on my APL and I still can’t call myself independant.
Mr Kell, I don’t think most consumers actually have any expectation that a CBA branded person will offer them anything other than CBA insurance. Why would they? They don’t offer ANZ savings accounts. They don’t offer Westpac loans. Why on earth would they offer a competitors insurance product?
On the other hand I think most consumers would assume that Count and Financial Wisdom are independent advice providers, and would have the ability to recommend any insurer whatsoever based purely on the merits of the product. ASIC needs to wake up to how real consumers make decisions. Most do it based purely on branding. They don’t read FSGs, they don’t care how the adviser gets paid, and they definitely don’t look up obscure online ASIC registers. The only people who take any notice of that stuff are lawyers and bureaucrats.
Dont talk sense to someone at ASIC, dont u know that they have had their sensible gene removed upon job acceptance…
Sounds like you have had your logic gene removed
Well said Anon, on all points!
Lets make a Holden dealer have an approved product list .Mr Kell try and buy a Ford there and they will laugh at you .
Incorrect. Significantly more care how we get paid and this will only increase.
Agreed. The whole point of not using the institution’s name is to portray a mirage of independence – How many consumers release that Aussie Home loans are owned by CBA.
The horse bolted about 15 years ago…