FINSIA has backed the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) reviewer and Allens partner Michelle Levy to provide recommendations to Treasury that will help increase access to financial advice in Australia.
On the latest episode of the ifa Show podcast, FINSIA CEO and managing director, Yasser El-Ansary, threw his support behind Ms Levy saying he is optimistic about the changes the QAR could bring.
“[Ms Levy] will already have a very good idea of where the pain points are, where the challenges are and where the opportunities are for our future,” Mr El-Ansary said.
“I think the expectation is certainly there that Michelle will run a very fine-tooth comb over the effectiveness and efficiency of a policy and regulatory environment that sits there at the moment. And again, she will have a starting knowledge of all of that from the role that she’s played in the industry for some time now.”
Mr El-Ansary added that the consistent notion shared by a majority of the QAR submissions — that the increased regulatory burden must be addressed — will be taken into serious consideration.
“… there is far too much complexity in this space and that efforts to eliminate some of the complexity or reduce the complexity where that’s possible must be a priority,” he said.
On the same episode, Mr El-Ansary discussed FINSIA’s QAR submission to Treasury which recommended the review and Ms Levy “explored the features of the coregulatory model that currently exists within the accounting profession… to determine if the government believes such a model may serve as a valuable guide for the evolution of the regulatory framework in respect of financial advisers in Australia”.
“Everything from the way in which they must hold certain levels of professional indemnity insurance to ensure that their clients are protected in the event of some misadventure in that particular area, the way in which public practitioners who hold a certificate in the accounting profession must complete a certain volume of continuing professional development on a periodic basis,” he explained.
“You can think about how that relates in the accounting profession very much to the need to keep abreast of regulatory change, policy change, changes to taxation law… [the accounting model] might serve as a really useful catalyst for at least some thinking to be done by Michelle Levy and the team around whether or not that model might, in fact, have a place in the context of financial advice.”
The QAR will be provided to government by 16 December this year.
Listen to the full podcast with Mr El-Ansary here.
READ MORE: Michelle Levy flags concerns about accountants’ advice proposal
You can’t fight corruption..and corruption in the form of political corruption and financial conflicts are now too heavily ingrained in financial services. Union Super Funds have big pockets and when it comes to this review it will be a chance for those funds to buy some more carve-outs and further dominate the Advice sector. I suspect come Dec 2023 many will say 2024 year will be the last for many Advisers. I was correct on FoFA, correct on FASEA and I’ll be correct on this one too.
The agenda is simple, but NOT easy.
Reduce the cost of financial advice to the constituent.
Improve the productivity of the adviser.
Re-invigorate the supply chain process to encourage good people to become financial advisers.
And there lies the problem – plenty of representation for advisers, but no actual advisers direct input. Never ceases to amaze the vested interest disconnect from the actual people providing the advice at ground zero.
This is because Govt allow these disconnected entities to sway decisions….and fund them too….
FINSIA’s own website provides the below
FINSIA Facts
135 Years
FINSIA’s origins date back to the first meeting of the Australian Institute of Banking and Finance (AIBF) on 21 July 1886 when more than 250 bankers met to promote “the dissemination of professional knowledge and sound banking practice”. Michelle Levy and Allen’s long term clients.
Is this a body who really understands what practical day to day needs and wants are for planners and their clients?
Especially planners who are not employed to flog their employers product.
Can’t say I share that confidence about Michelle Levy. She was appointed by Hume, who had a clear agenda to stifle professional advice and promote so called “fintechs” (which is just a fancy name for online product sellers of dodgy products). All the dorothy dixer questions about “fintechs” in the QAR questionnaire are geared to this.
The new minister needs to make it quite clear to Michelle Levy that QAR should actually be about quality of advice, and not Hume’s dodgy fintech agenda.
Lock this in. All the QAR will do is give carve outs to product providers and tech companies to provide robo or general advice. As usual the lawyers will be well paid, and will fix nothing. Real personal advice will stay exactly the same, costly, complex and out of the reach of the majority of Australians. Everyone will congratulate themselves claiming to have listened and fixed the regulation problem. ASIC will continue to target advisers for the slightest breach with product providers now untouchable.
A lawyer. Just what this industry needs.
One could be forgiven for assuming the best-placed professional to provide insights and suggestions on “pain points” in the industry might be an individual with experience practicing in the industry – not a lawyer.
Surely you jest. Lawyers, bureaucrats and education providers have all the answers.
Did FASEA teach them nothing???