HUB24 and XY Adviser have teamed up to produce a new documentary which calls for “affirmative action” to ensure Australians can access professional financial advice.
The documentary out now – which features industry leaders and advisers including Financial Services Council CEO Blake Briggs, Investment Trends CEO Sarah Brennan and Money Mentor’s Adele Martin – advocates that cost and the decreasing number of advisers in Australia, combined with the “complex regulatory environment”, as challenges for Australians getting quality advice.
“Without good financial advice, Australians miss out on the opportunity to plan for tomorrow, to have peace of mind, financial security and financial freedom,” HUB24 CEO Andrew Alcock said.
“We really need to consider, with the complexity of the environment we are in and all of the regulations and compliance, are we actually preparing Australians for the future?”
He continued: “There is an amazing opportunity to build the foundations of the future, and leverage data and technology to reduce friction for licensees, advisers and customers to empower better financial futures for more Australians.”
The new documentary comes after Peter Johnston, executive director of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professional (AIOFP), called for the new Albanese government to act quickly on some key issues, including the “compliance regime”.
“Minimum 50 per cent needs to be wiped out,” Mr Johnston said on the latest episode of the ifa Show podcast.
“It could be done in a day. It doesn’t have to go on for months and months and months with bureaucrats. It should be people from the industry – people from AFCA representing consumers and people from ASIC. They could sit in a room in an afternoon and point out all the stuff which is just ridiculously useless and just get rid of it.”
Listen to the full podcast with Mr Johnston here.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this discussion of the regulatory regime is that [b]the two sides have diametrically opposed incentives[/b]. Advisers want to do what is efficient and reduces costs but regulators want to keep getting bigger so they receive a bigger budget allocation. The incentive for advisers is to [b]succeed[/b] but regulators are rewarded if they[b] fail[/b] with a bigger budget.
Advisers and industry reps can make their valid points but regulators have no incentive to co-operate if it means less jobs and lower salaries for them.
Not sure how this can be resolved but my feeling is we are close to a tipping point where there are more regulators sitting in the wagon than the private sector workers pulling the cart can cope with.
Peter Johnstone seems to be doing a lot more for advisers that his counterparts at AFA/FPA who have been and remain behoven to product providers – ‘o when will they even learn, o when will they ever learn ‘…. Peter, Paul and Mary
So which of the other 13 Associations are Paul and Mary from?