Advisers have indicated their opposition to the recent news that super fund trustees may now offer limited personal advice to their superannuation fund members.
Our latest poll results show 77% of advisers (at time of publishing) have answered ‘No’ to the question:
Do you agree that superannuation fund trustees should be allowed to provide limited, single issue, personal advice to their superannuation fund members?
The general feeling amongst the adviser community is that it seems there are now two different sets of rules under which advice can now be provided (“…the goalposts have been moved“).
Advisers don’t seem to be saying they are concerned about more ‘mums and dads’ having access to personal advice (which is the reason for ASIC’s decision to allow super trustees to provide limited personal advice), but rather that, even though the personal advice is limited to intra fund advice, super trustees are not required to ‘know their client’ in order to give that advice.
This comment from an adviser summarises the majority feeling:
How is someone going to advise on these things without having to know the client
Do I have enough Life insurance? Do you think I should have TPD or income Protection? Will I have enough super for when I retire? Is my super invested in the best place? How is someone going to advise on these things without having to know the client.
Although 77% of advisers have indicated their opposition to allowing super trustees to offer limited advice, 20% of survey respondents are in favour of this move (3% undecided), where the opinion amongst those in favour is that it may present new opportunities for advisers where ‘mums and dads’ will be encouraged by their super fund trustees to seek further advice on other investment and insurance issues outside the limited intra fund advice scope allowable under the class order relief.
Your opinion counts, so we encourage you to have your say. If you have not yet voted or left a comment, our poll remains open, so…
Call me a cynic.Member phones advice line.Do I have enough life insurance? NO.Do you think I should have TPD or income protection? YES. Will I have enough super when I retire? YES if you increase your contributions and roll -over other funds. Is my super in the best place?YOU BET!
If only 77% of advisers say “no” are the other 23% Trustees?? Where is the “level playing field” that everyone is talking about? Does the Trustee get sued when their client’s (who they don’t know from Adam)”default” insurance cover, after an EVENT is deemed to be totally wrong???
Lets call it what it is. That is, the union run funds getting the government to change the rules to suit them and make it harder for the advice industry. If I have a client come to me to talk of nothing but super, can I skip all the fact find and other compliance hurdles? No, but if I receive a commision for doing so I’m a crook!
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