Addressing the Stockbrokers and Financial Advisers Association virtual conference on Friday, shadow financial services minister Stephen Jones said the administrative and leadership issues that had plagued the authority for the past few years should be “visited home” directly to Scott Morrison, who was Treasurer at the time FASEA was created.
“An organisation that has had three CEOs in two years, that is a clear indication that there’s something wrong – alarm bells were going off and weren’t being listened to, and now we’re having this problem in the sector,” Mr Jones said.
“That’s got to be visited home on the PM and Treasurer, who were overseeing the implementation of FASEA. They have failed in their duty and advisers are paying the price for that.”
Mr Jones said while Labor was supportive of raising educational standards and the quality of advice, the process had been “mishandled” by the Coalition, causing unnecessary anxiety among practitioners.
“We believe the Coalition has failed on implementing these changes, and the stress that has been experienced within the advice sector is a product of that mishandling,” he said.
“They built FASEA from the ground up, and the under-resourcing and lack of ministerial direction or discretion has meant there has been so many problems with the rollout of qualifications and accreditation [of courses].”
In an earlier session on Friday, Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Fintech Jane Hume sought to distance the Coalition from FASEA’s operational problems, saying the authority was not answerable to the government.
“I’d love to be able to say I can direct FASEA but I can’t. No one can direct FASEA, FASEA is an independent statutory body. And it was set up that way intentionally,” Ms Hume said.
“They don’t take direction from government, so they’re responsible for those standards. I think it’s really important that the industry voice their opinion on those standards and how workable they might be directly to FASEA in any way that it possibly can … whether it be the guidance notes or the standards themselves, I think that it’s really important to get this right.”
YOU CANNOT HOLD AN EXAM AND TEST IF A PERSON IS ETHICAL.
The process is a monopoly.
You have killed of the integrity and dignity of 30 to 40 year veterans with life lasting client relationships.
Get a grip industry, we have sat here and let the political coke addicts destroy the industry for the all who are genuine
Not just the oldies but any upcoming entrants are now deterred from the industry and myself as a young 30 year old adviser am now out of the industry too. No one has been left unhurt by these changes.
more like a failure of bodies like the FPA to properly put terms forward that represent planners.
Useless Pollies, Regulators & Bureaucrats acting like little children with zero ability to accept responsibility for the absolute dogs breakfast mess they have All made.
[b]So some ETHICS and SPINE you Muppets !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do your job you are paid very good money for and fix it
[/b][b][/b]
So who has authority if an independent statutory body goes rogue? Government can’t pull them back in line by the sounds of that. Seems like there should be some way Senator Hume could do something if she really wanted to.
I am SO SO happy I handed in my AFSL. Now I’m on the dole.
you mean jobseeker…LOL
FARSEA
The whole FASEA thing is an exercise by the Government to appease the voters so as to be seen to be doing something post the Royal Commission. There is no correlation between level of education and ethics. If an advisor wants to defraud clients of their money they will. FASEA has just gotten rid of the dumber criminals and left the smarter ones in practice.
Scott, i voted for you because i trusted you and i didn’t trust Shorten and Labor. The changes you have implemented are crippling small businesses in Financial Services, the pace with which fund managers are scrambling to change things early is relentless, the schoolyard bullying tactics you condone ASIC using are disgraceful and the total disregard for any self worth for existing advisers that FASEA has created is demoralising. As a self employed planner it is just not worth the risks anymore let alone the economics of it. Your legacy will be seen as banks selling businesses for huge amounts to exit the industry, Industry Super take the mantle as provider and adviser by virtue of built in fees and many lives ruined. That will be the great policy contribution you will be remembered for by me.
Pathetic Pollies and Bureaucrats All taking zero responsibility for their stuff ups.
Ethics, you All have none.
FARSSA Ethics courses and exams required For the lot of you
Hume is being loose with the truth and she needs to be called out. The Government appoints the board, so they have substantial influence. FASEA can be fixed very easily by appointing a majority of experienced, practicing advisers to the board. This is what should have happened in the first place. Having academics, ‘consumer representatives’ and others with directorship experience on the board is a good thing. But they should be there in a support role. It was a grave mistake to stack the board with people who have little knowledge regarding the profession. The intention behind FASEA was good and with the right people in charge, all of the standards could be sensibly amended so they are workable for practitioners and raise standards for the benefit of consumers.
Exactly. The other big mistake was having directors who have massive commercial conflicts of interest. In theory having academics and a so called “ethicist” on the board was a good idea. But it turned out those people abused their position as directors to impose an excessive training regime that generates course and textbook revenue for themselves and their employers.
Hume should have acted long ago to boot these people off the board. Ideally they should also be referred to a corruption inquiry of some sort. Perhaps Tim Wilson could ask some questions about them in parliament?
Is there more than one course available for planners to take? either to upgrade their quals or to enter this industry/profession? Of course there is. Is there more than one provider for ethical content & courses? Of course there is.
Did the FASEA Board of Directors put in the enacting legislation that advisers must be bachelor degree qualified or equivalent? No, that was the government, done well before the Board of Directors was even announced.
Did the FASEA Board establish the Aust Qualifications Framework that lists what a bachelor degree or degree equivalent was? Again NO, thats been set in stone by TEQSA for quite some time.
Fancy turning to a show pony like Tim Wilson, when he and his government are the ones who have formulated this mess. The LNP have long ago decided that there’s no votes in defending our industry/profession, I dont know why many planners still see them as an advocate for our cause.
Most advisers (apart from a few old insurance salesmen) are supportive of the degree requirement brought in by the government. Most advisers are also supportive of ethics training. In fact most advisers already have degrees and ethics training.
But it was conflicted FASEA directors who decided that most of those advisers’ degrees, and all of their ethics training, was worthless. It was conflicted FASEA directors who mandated additional unnecessary training for already highly qualified advisers. It is conflicted FASEA directors who will personally profit from some of that extra unnecessary training. Including much of the ongoing CPD for years to come.
Do you really think it’s not conflicted if they only get 10% or 50% or 95% of the additional revenue generated by their inappropriate decisions? Is it only conflicted if they benefit 100% from the outcome?
It is not the government’s fault for creating this mess. For example who would reasonably have expected a so called “ethicist” to behave so unethically? But it is Minister Hume’s fault for not acting to fix the problems when they became clear early on. Perhaps a “show pony” like Tim Wilson is what’s needed to deliver corrective action where others have failed to do so.
Whats the point asking FASEA? I emailed them over a month ago asking why they dont tell exam candidates their % result and they are still yet to reply. No phone help line either. They are unaccountablt until the government who created them makes them accountable.
All I have heard from Stephen Jones is complaining about everything the Government does (even when Labor then go on to support it). His latest whinge would have meant more if he had of explained what he would change.
Yes but who set the laws and regulations that ASIC and FASEA enforce?
LNP have a very short memory. They asked the advice community to give the rallying cry when Shorten came us with his BS policy regarding Franking Credits and property investments. The LNP made the advice a number of promises to fix the broken legislation especially FASEA. The advice community delivered and a shock outcome with LNP winning the election was the result. The arrogant LNP have since reneged / forgotten their promises. The financial community will remember this at election time. We won’t be fooled twice…
Umm, the government DOESN’T CARE about buggerising this because they aren’t the people left scrambling around to clean up the mess, such as trying to pass an obscure national exam that provides no score or feedback on your results – it’s probably the only exam on planet earth that’s structured in this manner yet it’s allowed to continue by the very people who designed it – it’s designed to fail as many advisers as possible so just accept that and move on already.
Designed to fail as many advisers as possible, yet the success rate so far is close to 90%, so that doesnt really align with what you’re saying. The intention is that advisers need to get a credit score, so thats around 65% to pass, hardly onerous. You get feedback if you’ve only failed in one area – ie: you need to bone up on ethics – but if you fail across all three sections they obviously tell you to do more study across all three areas. It’s hardly rocket science – to both pass the exam or to work this stuff out.
You are right about one thing – the government doesnt care!!!
Isn’t this the very same Labor Party that at the last election said quite unequivocally they would implement EVERY recommendation of the Royal Commission if elected ?
look after your AFSL
Of course it’s not the Pollies fault.
They just create ALL the massive Red Tape Laws, hows it their fault.
Not ASICs fault, they just PATERNALISTICALLY over REGULATE interpretation of the Laws, hows it their fault.
Not FARSEAs fault their just doing what the Pollies told them to do. But apparently havent told them to do.
MUST BE ASVISERS FAULT, they cause all the problems.
DISGUSTINGLY USLESS POLLIES & BUREAUCRATS WITH ZERO RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FREAKING MESS.
Truth is FOFA was manageable. Problematic but manageable. And for the right reasons.
FASEA is not manageable. FASEA is inept. Connection between the reasons for it, and the actual implementation of it, is tenuous.
On whose watch did this ineptitude occur?
Typical LNP politician in the current environment, they NEVER take any responsibility for anything. I’m surprised Jane Hume’s response wasnt simply Labor Labor Labor, she’s worse than Kelly O’Dwyer…
as i said, politicians were busy scoring brownie points with their voters
You lousy bunch of inept fools.You are responsible for the absolute destruction of a once great industry
Just telling the audience at SAFAA what they wanted to hear.
It’s over for a lot of Stockbrokers – as it should be. Many/most will not pass the exam by the end of 2021.
Only 8 sittings of the exam remain.
Too old, let go. Move to wholesale or retire.
Everyone has to be answerable to someone or we have some sort of facism or dictatorship.
Hellooo Pontius Pilate. O’Dwyer was captive to ASIC and some fanatics in her office. She knew exactly what she was doing in designing FASEA as an Authority – untouchable by lobbying, with changes to be made by legislation ONLY, thus subject to failure in the Senate. Morrison saw no advantage in interfering as Treasurer, no marketing opportunities there. The biggest question for me is WHY NAB, CBA and Macquarie saw value in funding the first three years of FASEA, when most of them in 2016-17 had already decided to exit advice, pre Hayne.
Jones barely knows his left from his right and his tweet saying the government was going to slash the SGC rate by 2.5% was a blatant lie.
love to do that but no votes and no picture shots we can use from that to show how wonderful i am …next please
Opportunist. Bill Shorten’s badly designed FoFA legislation is a big part of this mess – looking innocuous but in practice almost impossible to adhere to. Hence the overkill on red tape.
Kelly O’Dwyer farted this one out and the mess is unforgivable.
What rock has Hume been hiding under? The voices of adviser have been totally ignored it wonderful to use a throw away line about FASEA. How about we petition every sitting member of Parliament to write an ethics exam and if they fail they cannot be an active member lose their entitlements and can only come back once they pass!!!
…you forgot to give them complete uncertainty of the exam material and a narrow deadline in which to pass or find another career!
that is because politicians were too busy scoring brownie points with voters
FASEA has failed.
Voice concerns to FASEA? What does Ms Hume think has been happening?
Unfortunately when you create a body that has total power and no oversight, the self interest of those at the top of FASEA will continue to take precedence over the Advisers “governed” by this body.
This whole mess has been caused by POLITICIANS who in general know bugger all about what we do.
FOFA focused on the wrong things – it should’ve been focused on built-in comms that weren’t subject to disclosure, instead they focused on the fees charged explicitly to clients – FDS’s/Opt-ins/etc.
FASEA was legislated and all the timeframes set in stone before they had even established the Board, employed any staff, set any standards, agreed on approved degrees, etc etc and then wonder why both FASEA & we advisers are behind the 8-ball from day one.