QoA Review Decision – Your View

The financial services sector has generally responded favourably to the announcement this week that the Government will initially support 14 of the 22 Quality of Advice Review recommendations. But does this generally favourable response accord with your own view?

During the course of the debate over Michelle Levy’s QoA Review recommendations, a proportion of the adviser population has questioned, for example, whether it should be optional for clients to receive a written Statement of Advice or other record of the advice provided to them. This group of advisers may therefore hold concerns around the Government’s support for the recommendation to replace “unwieldy” SoAs with something else the Financial Services Minister terms fit for purpose.

Safe Harbour steps are also to be removed, consent requirements are to be streamlined and life insurance commissions will be retained.

…this appears to be a decent start to addressing the regulatory quagmire that has consumed the financial advice sector over the last ten years

Overall, this appears to be a decent start to addressing the regulatory quagmire that has consumed the financial advice sector over the last ten years in particular, with the focus on cutting red tape and eliminating some of the other barriers to the efficient delivery of more affordable, good advice to more Australians.

While the Government has stopped short of embracing all 22 of the QoA Review recommendations, it says it has yet to rule out any of them and that it will undertake further consultation with industry ahead of further decisions on the remaining eight recommendations.

In the meantime, however, do you think initial acceptance of 14 of the 22 recommendations is a good start? Or do you have another perspective? Tell us what you think and we’ll report back next week…