In a statement released on Monday, United Financial Advisers Association chairman Alex Vagliviello said the inability of the Coalition and Labor to put aside their differences and pass legislation allowing an extension to the FASEA compliance deadline “defied comprehension” given the critical importance of the advice profession in the current crisis.
“The failure to pass the FASEA extension bill was not an issue of a simple exam extension but a reaffirmation of the gulf between politicians and their consultants and the real world of advisers and the benefit they provide to consumers – many of whom now are on struggle street as a result of the pandemic,” Mr Vagliviello said.
“At a time when Australia needs bold and decisive action and a vision charting a return to economic wellbeing for the good of the people, federal parliamentarians are once again found wanting – they simply don’t care.”
Mr Vagliviello said with a large proportion of advisers having left the industry last year and many more considering retiring in 2020 as the existing deadline for exam compliance loomed, it was possible that further delays to the passage of the bill could see extensive job losses in the advice sector.
“Politicians continue to ignore the fact that financial advisers are SMEs and are leaving the industry in unprecedented numbers,” he said.
“This latest fiasco will not only accelerate the exodus, but in doing so, condemn their administrative staff and paraplanners to be added to the ranks of unemployed.”
Mr Vagliviello said growing uncertainty around the bill was contributing to mental health issues for advisers, who had been “inundated” with client queries due to extreme market volatility.
“From the outset of the resultant collapse in share and property markets brought about by the pandemic, financial advisers have literally been inundated by business owners forced to close their enterprises and individuals made unemployed or required to take leave without pay,” he said.
“[They are] all reaching out to advisers needing professional qualified advice in relation to pensions, superannuation, share values, personal and household debt, how to manage cash flow, life insurance [and] mortgages.”
The comments come following a stoush between both sides of Parliament last week that saw the bill to extend the FASEA exam compliance deadline to 2022 fail to pass the Senate in last week’s reduced sitting.
The upper house is set to sit again on 10 June.
Good on them. Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade so I encourage & support the extension and what they’ve done. To call another spade a spade, it reflects quite poorly that so many advisers have not sat the exam already and that reflects on this industry. There is leeway built into the process for the inevitable pot holes in life, and that should not mean advisers that are well and capable of doing the exam taking advantage of it. Those advisers who have not completed the ethics course and sat the exam in the first few sittings you’ve made it quite difficult for your peers that have had genuine excuses.
Umm, I’m not sure why any advisers or their unions are so surprised at any of this but if you haven’t figured out by now that politicians and the government DON’T CARE about this industry then you need to WAKE UP and accept “what is” and move on with your life. After operating an advice business for 15 years, managing $60M in FUM and processed a dozen life insurance policies during that time I am now re-training into another UNREGULATED field of business and will exit the industry leaving behind 300+ orphaned clients and insurance policies and when customers ask me “WHY?” I will just point the finger at Canberra and say “Go ask them!”
Politicians don’t care about the collateral damage this causes to “vulnerable consumers” or the increased advice costs or higher PI Premiums or the bigger under-insurance problem that already exists – the facts are that ASIC and their politician minions have an agenda which is to rape and pillage the advice industry with “infringement fees and levys” and make it as hard as possible for advisers to provide an honest service to their clients, not to mention make a living from the left over scraps.
My honest advice to all advisers, banks and businesses alike would be to totally Boycott the advice industry, don’t sell platform investments or superannuation products and definitely don’t sell any life insurance and that will leave ASIC, Politicians, PI insurers and Product Manufacturers desperately scrambling for answers and explaining to consumers why that happened, throw the pressure and spotlight back on them for a change!
I mean, come on guys and gals, who in their right mind would enter an industry or continue to work in one where both sides of the government hates you, then you have to send annual opt-ins, FDS, FSGs, PDS, SoAs, RoAs, Ombudsman decisions that are always made in the customers favour, annual exams and Post Graduate Degrees and rising PI costs just to do the same thing we have always done without issue or complaint!?!
Anyway that’s my rant for the day so I’m off to polish my old car and play another round of Golf at 2:30!
Polticians playing games with peoples livelihoods is very distasteful.
Is UFAA rude about everyone?
The ufaa was to be the next big thing but what happened? Heard nothing for years then this. Ufaa, aiofp, ifaa, afa, fpa. 5 associations that cant work together for the good of the industry. Too many voices proportedly speaking for us. We need to wake up and smell the cornflakes, this is exactly why we are not listened too, we are way too fragmented! Even the fsu is getting more traction than any of the above, seems they actually want to work for memberships and members, not themselves.
Yes and we’ve only got ourselves to blame. The FPA has members whose employer pays for their membership fees in return for silence. That’s says a lot about the quality of members themselves.
UFAA has only been recent. The rest has been around for years such as the AFA and FPA. Their objective is clear. pander to the members that are the Financial Services Council, many of whom were responsible for the fallout of the Royal Commission and do so while in a hyprocritcal manner saying they care for the advisers they purrport to represent. This year, if you are with the FPA or AFA, don’t waste your money on their membership. Join with an association that truly seeks to represent you. If the UFAA AIOFP are genuine in their intent as this article shows, that is a terrific start and good on the UFAA for this stance. Give us true representation UFAA…please….we sure as heck need this.
Why don’t people just get on and do the exam, instead of complaining and pushing for extensions. Move on or move out.
The exam of itself is a result of non transparent, unaccountable entity behaving like a bully. Its material to study is legislation, regulatory guides, very little to nothing on behavioural finance and if this makes you an ethical adviser. Thats a joke. It simply means you can answer questions and get through an “exam”. In practice you may be ethical or a damn crook. But thanks for the money you have contributed to an exam which counts for nothing. Period. Should the consumer have confidence in advisers that pass this “exam” or someone that has formal qualifications like a degree. Wake up sleepy….
Maybe it’s because many of us are still deciding if it’s even bloody viable to stay! Its not as simple as you suggest so back off and worry about yourself.
You have absolutely no idea Jack, whoever you are! Just speak for yourself, we are not interested.
Your very naive Jack.
I’m sorry but what does a financial adviser have to do here?… A client looses their job, that’s terrible I can direct them to the ATO to withdraw money or a centrelink benefit but other then that what good can they do?… All these people have lots of time on their hands to sit on hold and what adviser could charge a fee worth doing any of this work?…