Phil Anderson said advisers were dealt “unfair criticism” during Thursday’s Senate debate – where the government’s Your Future, Your Super and Self Managed legislations passed – by ALP Senator Jenny McAllister who said, “the people who will benefit most from these arrangements are financial advisers giving shonky advice – the kind of advice we’ve seen again and again and again, the kind of advice exposed in the Hayne Royal Commission”.
“The persistent, ongoing vilification of financial advisers, that we have seen year after year in the Federal Parliament, and in the media, is totally unjust and unreasonable. It borders on abuse and must stop,” Mr Anderson said.
“The vast majority of financial advisers always work in the best interests of their clients.
“The entire profession should not be judged based on what a very small minority have done in the past. Other professions are not judged because of what their worst do.”
Mr Anderson also slammed Ms McAllister’s comment about the Hayne royal commission, saying the hearings only looked at the conduct of 10 individual advisers.
“This is a tiny fraction of the adviser population,” he said.
“Importantly, the Royal Commission had access to information on misconduct from numerous different organisations over a 10-year period. It is hardly surprising that they revealed cases of serious misconduct during the hearings, however it is totally unreasonable and unfair to suggest in any way that this was widespread.
“It is important to note that complaints about financial advice make up only 1.4 per cent of complaints received by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.”
The AFA said it believes the attacks on advisers in Parliament are an important factor as to why the number of advisers in Australia has fallen by 30 per cent since the Hayne royal commission.
Meanwhile a survey conducted in May by AIA Australia’s Australian Financial Advisers Wellbeing Report – which surveyed over 700 local advisers – found that 73 per cent are experiencing high levels of burnout from stress while 67 per cent experienced some level of depression.
A further 61 per cent of survey respondents reported trouble sleeping as a result of stress, while around a third of advisers who participated in the report said they were seeing a medical professional to manage their mental health issues.
“Financial advisers are humans, they have families and friends. They have emotions. For too long they have been forced to feel uncomfortable talking publicly about what they do. This is not right,” Mr Anderson said.
“No professional should be made to feel this way, and particularly not by elected members of their own Parliament.
“The time has come. Enough is enough. We call on all fair minded Australians to make this happen.”
Senator, why don’t you tell us how much money your party receives from Industry Super, both directly or indirectly via the ACTU.
These bodies were pretty quite when CBA said the same thing. Turns out you can blame planners and get away with it only when you make payments and shove members there way.
How ironic. A politician talking about shonky advice. Pot. Kettle. Black.
Senator, I am interested in hearing three things from you:
1. Have you actually been to a financial adviser and seen/experienced what we do?
2. You studied political science. Excluding your time as a political adviser, your work experience includes four years in the public service and five years working with a climate change engineering firm. What experience do you have with regard to the financial services industry, and financial advice in particular?
3. You refer to the many cases of shonky advice given by financial advisers. Can you please enlighten us and tell us what this widespread shonky advice was, noting you shouldn’t confuse it with decisions made by the executives in the banks that intentionally ripped people off.
[i]“The entire profession should not be judged based on what a very small minority have done in the past. Other professions are not judged because of what their worst do.”[/i]
Other professions have people that have met the standards required to practice.
[i]Mr Anderson also slammed Ms McAllister’s comment about the Hayne royal commission, saying the hearings only looked at the conduct of 10 individual advisers.[/i]
Nothing to see here?
[i]“Financial advisers are humans, they have families and friends. They have emotions. For too long they have been forced to feel uncomfortable talking publicly about what they do. This is not right,” Mr Anderson said.[/i]
… and why exactly do they feel this way? Because of the outstanding reputation?
[i]“The time has come. Enough is enough. We call on all fair minded Australians to make this happen.”[/i]
The reason you don’t put your hand on a hot stove twice is that you learn your lesson the first time you get burnt.
This comment is quite correct in parts. There is merit in what Phil says and what this comment says.
troll
‘No professional’ – Phil is right, except ….
We are not professionals while we allow ourselves to be employed or licensed by product providers. Then we are salespeople sailing under the false flag “Adviser” and this allows the Labor party to make attacks like these.
Agree…very easy to have rocks thrown at you. the least we should be doing is having industry associations being free of conflicts of interest.
Wow thats a bit rich and there is nothing shonky about the labour party, seriously
Thanks Phil
But those Union Super Fund intra-fund advisers, earning over $100 million a year in ongoing fees (for little to no service), without opt ins & without conformed consent – Labor’s McAllister would say they are just fine. Now that is legislative financial abuse against retail advisers. Nowhere in the world has such discriminatory legislation been imposed as it has against retail Australian advisers. It is simply unjust.
“shonky financial advisers” and big banks has been a term that has worked well for decades for the Labor party and will continue to work well in their upcoming term..No doubt to further strengthen Union run super funds. Financial Planners themselves have contributed to this mis truth by being licensed under large product manufacturers and industry associations like the AFA and the FPA will never bite the hand that feeds them. I would suggest the advice industry gets it own house in order and it starts at looking internally at bodies like the FPA and members questioning their representation.
This is very true.
Like all those before me, I’m fed up with imbeciles like Ms McAllister making these outrageous and unsubstantiated comments.
I hate using his term as it implies weakness and a lack of accountability for ones own life but advisers really are VICTIMS now of a relentless onslaught of incredibly biased, conflicted and narrow mindedness where our faults are focused on day after day. This is what I now commonly refer to as ‘windscreen scratch focus’ instead of the bigger picture beyond those scratches.
EVERY industry, EVERY occupation EVERYWHERE around the world has people that cross the line when it comes to greed – including bloody politicians Ms McAllister!
We don’t have anything more in this industry than you do or any other industry. What WE DO HAVE though is an absolutely horrible industry regulator with its own agenda of adviser persecution; a media that only focuses on negatives (as positive stories fail to gain the click-bait they’re after) and politicians who find it incredibly convenient to use our industry as their political point scoring playground.
The Hayne Royal Commission, LIF and even FASEA have all been cleverly and cunningly redirected away from the real perpetrators of consumer abuse, which everyone knows is the banks and industry superfunds who CAN somehow get away with blowing millions and millions of dollars in Executive payments and advertising each year without even a whimper from anyone. Somehow, the focus just keeps landing unfairly back on advisers. Its so, so wrong and I’m out as soon as I can get out.
This industry has become a cesspool of hatred and despair for me now. Like a previous comment, I also lose sleep most nights with worry about the workload, legislation / compliance fear and being able to exit without 6 months of unpaid work satisfying ridiculously overreaching RG175 record keeping requirements that ASIC have created on the run.
I can’t make money anymore and feel like an absolute failure, despite an unblemished 15 years where many clients have received the very promise I made them when we implemented their cover. I’m now locked into doing something that no matter what I do, I’m still branded a crook. I have such hopeless despair now.
She is not an imbecile. She is an opportunist who walks through a door opened by us.
The louder the ALP attack us, the more we can see how corrupt they are, and their conflict of interest with the industry funds that pay them.
The problem is that this is NOT a contest of ideas. This is an uneven playing field where one side of politics is corrupt.
This is a real problem. We cannot go to our local member to seek better outcomes for our clients and our industry when our local memeber is corrupt, and is in the pocket of the other side.
Well said.
Predictable!!. Ms McAllister is just responding to a call to arms from the industry funds, who are now a significant contributor to the Labor Party. SMSFs are a direct threat to industry funds. Too much $$$ going out means no funds for football team/stadium sponsorship, which as we know, is in the interests of members!
Well done AFA
…and in concert with “sick to death financial planner” below, the numbers of lawyer trust accounts being used by them for perosnal reasons, as well as complaints and then do the same with accountants and the dodgy deals they do on the side with their clients outside of the law.
Thank you Phil.
It is 4:40 Sunday morning and I couldn’t sleep so I know all about this situation like many of my colleagues.
take care everyone!