The release of the QoA Review final report marks the beginning of a new way forward for the profession, but the extent to which ‘non relevant providers’ could provide personal advice should be a matter for further industry consultation, according to The Advisers Association.
TAA CEO, Neil Macdonald says the organisation particularly supports measures that make personal financial advice more digestible for consumers and more efficient for advisers to deliver.
It also welcomes recommendations around removing “…the overly prescriptive ways in which advice must currently be presented to clients, and simplifying fee consent.”
He says that together these measures would enable advisers to deliver advice in the way consumers actually want to receive it.
Further Considered Industry Consultation
Macdonald adds that the extent to which ‘non relevant providers’ such as product providers, superannuation funds and banks, could provide personal advice should be a matter for further considered industry consultation.
He says that while there is no doubt that there is a huge accessibility issue around financial advice in Australia “…as we have previously said, what we want to avoid is a situation whereby consumers think they are getting personal financial advice from a qualified financial adviser with – if the recommendations go through – a fiduciary Best Interests Duty, when in fact they are receiving only product information and guidance from someone representing an entity with a vested interest.”
Macdonald says if those recommendations go through unaltered, a consumer education piece around this issue is likely to be required.
“After years and years of reforms, and conduct that has unfairly damaged the reputation of qualified, professional financial advisers who have, and will continue to have, a Best Interests Duty towards their clients, the last thing in the world we want to see is history repeat itself,” he says.
