The impending Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms appear to have had little impact on the public’s perception of financial advisers, with just 25% of Australians rating them as highly honest and ethical.
The survey, conducted by Roy Morgan, asks participants to rate the honesty and ethical standards of a range of occupations on a scale from very high to very low. Financial advisers achieved a score of just 25%, indicating that the majority of Australians rank advice practitioners’ professional conduct as average, or lower.
Financial advisers were one of only four professions to record a decline in their rating year on year
It is the fifth year financial advisers have been included in the research. While the advice profession’s score peaked at 28% in 2011, this year it has fallen back to its lowest rating of 25% (equal to the score achieved in 2009 and 2010). Financial advisers were one of only four professions to record a decline in their rating year on year in the 2013 survey.
Ranking number one in the list of thirty occupations were nurses, who achieved a rating of 90%. Doctors and pharmacists rounded out the top three. Financial advisers ranked 18th in the list, ahead of both State and Federal MPs, insurance brokers and car salesmen.
The results come at a time when most advice professionals are bracing for the commencement of the FoFA regulations, designed to increase the number of Australians who seek financial advice. Despite a raft of media releases and statements from both the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on the reforms, it appears from Roy Morgan’s results that the message is not getting through. The Financial Services Council (FSC) has called on the Federal Government to co-fund an awareness campaign about the importance of financial advice (see: FSC Proposes Centralised Competency Framework), but the Government is yet to respond to this request.
Big deal. Of course the added attention of FOFA will have a negative impact regardless of the changes. The whole point of FOFA is to say that we are not professional and the government needs to intervene to provide guidelines. It’s an absolute waste of time, money and resources and everyone from the humble adviser to the big institutions are too scared to say anything against it now.
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