The Advisers Association (TAA) says any new model for financial advice must level the playing field for financial advisers.
Commenting on a research report launched last week by the Financial Services Council, which proposes a new model for financial advice (see: Launch of Radical Plan to Revamp Financial Advice), TAA CEO, Neil Macdonald says that those “…best qualified and experienced to provide advice currently have their hands tied by a range of factors.”
He says these factors include:
- Product-focused legislation
- Multiple regulators
- Licensee policies and processes
“They are not enabled to provide simple advice and they should be,” he noted.
Macdonald says in a statement that ASIC’s temporary Covid-19 relief measures around superannuation are an example of the uneven playing field for financial advisers.
“The measures include a temporary no-action position for superannuation trustees to expand the scope of personal advice that may be provided by, or on behalf of, the superannuation trustee as intrafund advice. However, financial advisers must still meet Best Interests Duty and Safe Harbour obligations for new clients,” he says.
He adds that if a client wants to see their financial adviser for intrafund advice, the adviser should be subject to the same rules and disclosure requirements as those providing intrafund advice on behalf of superannuation fund trustees.
TAA believes that terms such as ‘general financial advice’, ‘intrafund advice’ and ‘roboadvice’ cause confusion among consumers and should be redefined as ‘general financial information’, ‘intrafund information’ and ‘robofinance’ respectively.
“We also need to arrive at an appropriate term for people who provide financial information, particularly given that the terms ‘financial adviser’ and ‘financial planner’ are likely to soon be protected.”
He adds that the new term must make it obvious to consumers that when, for example, they seek intrafund information from a provider, they will only receive information about that firm’s products. He suggests an appropriate term might be ‘financial assistant’.
…the industry needs to move much faster towards being a profession…
Macdonald also says the industry needs to move much faster towards being a profession, although it is not an easy task, given that even the Corporations Act focuses on product rather than advice.
“Commissioner Hayne missed a great opportunity during the Royal Commission when he did not call for the separation of advice and product. It is very difficult for the industry to move towards greater professionalism without it,” he says.
TAA is a non-profit, member-based association with all its members being authorised representatives of AMP Financial Planning and Hillross Financial Services.
Western democracies and economies are being dragged backwards by a multitude of opaque Regulations and Laws that have led to massive job growth for Lawyers, Compliance, Education and vested interest groups who create and produce NOTHING except confusion and red tape.
The one thing they have been successful at, is massive job losses in most other Industries and an economic disaster for all Australians.
A level playing field can only come about, when these perpetrators are removed from the process.
A level playing field can start by separating Insurance advice from Investment advice, which is the only way the Life Insurance Industry will be able to start to recover.
Great, just what we need, another Adviser Association.
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