The message about the unintended consequences of the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms is reaching the ears of Independent and Greens MPs, says the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
A delegation from the AFA visited Canberra last week to meet with independents Tony Crook, Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie, and key advisers to the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten.
I’ve been lobbied on this matter by more people than almost anything else
According to the AFA’s political advisor, Kerry Chikarovksi, the message about the negative impact of some areas of the reforms is getting through, thanks in part to advisers meeting with their local MPs.
“When we went to Canberra last week and met with the cross-benchers, and the major political parties, including the Greens, one of the first things those politicians said to us was, quote un-quote, ‘I’ve been lobbied on this matter by more people than almost anything else, other than the carbon tax’. So you’re doing very well,” said Ms Chikarovski.
Speaking to AFA members ahead of Minister Shorten’s address in Sydney this week, Ms Chikarovski said that while the Association had the greatest respect for the Government’s role in leading reform in the financial services industry, it also asked the Government to respect its right to disagree.
“If there is to be legislation introduced into the parliament which doesn’t reflect what this Association would like it to reflect, the only opportunity to change it will be to work with the Opposition and the cross-benchers, and ask them to support amendments that we may put to them, or ask them to put up on our behalf,” she said.
Ms Chikarovski said that once draft legislation was released, the AFA would review what was proposed and if it does not reflect the policy position of the Association, then it would re-engage with cross-benchers and the Greens to talk about the amendments it would like to see made.
“At the end of the day… the Government does have the right to set the framework, and it does have the right to set the agenda. Treasury works with them to deliver the bones of that, the legislative framework. We have the right as the AFA… to disagree with the Government and to act in your best interest.
“We believe we’ve been doing that for the last 18 months. We believe the approach we’ve taken hasn’t been controversial and it hasn’t been confrontational. It has been, in the large part, cooperative. But if we don’t get what we believe is the right outcome… then we will continue to work with those who we hope will share our view, and will work with us to persuade the Government to change their view,” Ms Chikarovski said.
In other AFA news, the Association has provided further details on its Make a Plan campaign, designed to raise community awareness about the need for financial advice.
AFA President, Brad Fox, said the Association was aiming to reach consumers at a deeper level.
What we’ve done up until now hasn’t engaged people at the emotional level
“We’ve got to do this very, very differently from what we’ve done before, because what we’ve done up until now hasn’t engaged people at the emotional level.
“It hasn’t got them thinking about the difference it (advice) makes to their lives at a deeper sense,” he said.
“We need to dig in and get them motivated. Our job is to change the perception of the people that aren’t getting advice. Because they don’t rate us. They don’t think we know what we’re doing. They don’t understand what we do. They don’t see value in it. We’ve got to change those perceptions, and get the two out of ten seeking advice to become three out of ten. And our target is to do that by 2014.”
Mr Fox said the group was halfway to achieving its goal of $2.5 million to fund the campaign.
