Do you believe your advice practice will be 'FoFA ready' by 1 July 2012?
- No (73%)
- Not sure (17%)
- Yes (10%)
The delay of the Parliamentary vote on the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reform Bill until at least February 2012 is prompting a growing number of industry stakeholders to question whether there will be enough time for advisers to be ready for the intended commencement of the new reforms.
Our latest poll question asks:
Do you believe your advice practice will be ‘FoFA ready’ by 1 July 2012?
Numerous advisers have told riskinfo that, unlike many of their colleagues, they are not greatly concerned about the changes they will need to make to their business to adjust to some of the key FoFA reforms from 1 July 2012.
But for as many advisers who say they have no real concerns over both the proposed FoFA reforms and the timing of their implementation, there are an equal or greater nunber who tell us they cannot see how they will be able to efficiently operate under FoFA or how their business will cope with the changes from 1 July. At the moment, they are not ready.
Elsewhere, there is concern that has been expressed by life companies and dealer group licensees that there is still insufficient detail accompanying the release of the draft legislation to enable them to confidently commence the adjustments to their administration processes that will be required to accommodate the proposed FoFA reform measures, particularly opt-in.
This concern about lack of detail has already prompted calls to delay the introduction of the reforms, assuming the legislation is actually passed in February or March 2012.
But irrespective of whether you support or oppose the more contentious elements of FoFA, particularly opt-in and the future banning of all investment and super product commissions, do you think your practice will be ready to launch out of the FoFA gates by 1 July 2012?
We understand there would be few advisers, if any, who will claim to possess all the information they will need in order to forge ahead with the process and structural changes that may be required of their business. But given what you know at this point, do you think your practice will be FoFA ready by 1 July 2012?…
Add your comment now
5 Comments
we are working on changes now to get FoFa ready but with the fact that it hasn’t even gone through parliment and wont until Feb 2012 are we doing enough. My opinion is NO WAY!!! by the time this reform gets to government it will have changed again at least 4 times, so we dont really even know what new rules we will HAVE to follow.
insights such great confidence
It is not possible to be ready for FOFA because we do not know what the final FOFA legislation will be. It is likely to change a number of times before it is passed in Parliament. The only advisers that are truly ready are the ones who intend to close the doors once FOFA is passed. Sadly I think the unions will achieve their objective and destroy the majority of the IFA market because FOFA will increase the risks associated with providing financial advice to a level where advisers will not be able to justify staying in business. Socialism is achieving its objective of destroying free enterprise so that the unions can obtian greater control of the economy.
Forget about advisers not being ready, the Government aren’t ready. its school halls and insulation all over again, the fall out will be horrendous, business will go broke and jobs will be lost, costs (to consumers) will go up as will underinsurance. Then when finally this lot are voted out and the mess is cleaned up we might finally be close to ready. it is not the reform I question , but rather the indecent haste with which it is pursued, because let’s face it, regardless of what you see on the 6.00 pm news, this Government know they are universally disliked by even their own support base, the only “friends” they have are on the lunatic fringe, and so they govern with the support of vested (minority) interests.
I would hate to be a small investor in the coming years because they will have nowhere to go to get affordable advice.The irony of this is these are the people Minister Shorten says he represents.The other aspect the Minister doesn’t appreciate is that when the investor inside an industry fund needs advice they go to a planner who in turn moves the money away from the industry fund.Thanks Industry funds for looking after the money during the growth years,we’ll take over now.
The only hope we have is the oakshot and windsors of the world. They know exactly what is at stake let’s see if either of them man up