A major driver of reader engagement this week was our report that the Coalition plans to double adviser numbers from the current 15,000 to 30,000 – if it wins the Federal Election..

The Coalition wants to see adviser number double to 30,000. Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor says the target will be embedded in ASIC’s statement of expectations if a Peter Dutton-led Coalition wins the Saturday 3 May Federal Election.

“Setting a target also acknowledges the collapse in adviser numbers and replacement rate over the last decade,” says Taylor.

He also wants to see affordable and accessible financial advice for consumers, saying it is critical to Australians’ financial security.

…Australians need access to affordable financial advice…

“Financial advice regulation must be focused on reducing costs, building the industry, and ensuring Australians have access to affordable advice,” he says.

The Coalition also plans to:

Angus Taylor.
Angus Taylor.
  • Fix the Compensation Scheme of Last resort to lower costs for advisers, and ensure it is fair and sustainable
  • Cut red tape by implementing Quality of Advice Review recommendations
  • Ensure any reforms to broaden who can provide advice do not undermine the role of fully qualified financial advisers
  • Review ongoing fee arrangement and life insurance commission, regulations, with a view to alignment with international best-practice
  • Reform education and relevant degree standards to get more financial advisers into the industry
  • Provide financial advisers access to the ATO portal
  • Make it easier for accountants to provide advice

“In times of economic uncertainty Australians need access to affordable financial advice to protect their hard-earned wealth,” says Taylor.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Finally, some recognition that the current framework is not a solution, just another ongoing hurdle that continues to shine a blinding light on what has been a disastrous few years.

    For the risk advice space, the ONLY way to move forward is to drop the current maze of stupidity, by forcing risk advisers to get irrelevant qualifications at huge cost and lost time, which has proven to be a total failure that has cost all Australians multi-billions of dollars through increasing premiums, mass cancellations of policies, huge increases in Government assistance that could otherwise have been alleviated via Life, trauma, TPD and Income Protection policies that have NOT been written over many years now due to the intransigent attitudes from ALL players in this area and where the only common ground has been a total loss of common sense.

    There is a massive difference between promises of change and properly executed, well thought out change that brings back some normality and incentive for new and existing Advisers to jump into risk advice again as a beginning of a career, or a continuation.

  2. Here's the thing on Gus's proposal to recruit another 15,000 advisers. So you are 24 years old, keen bright eyed and bushy tailed, may have an accounting or commerce degree or a diploma in financial services. You sit down and look at whether or not a career in financial advice is for you.

    You become aware that you need to have a 12 months apprenticeship where you will probably only earn around $60,000 a year; you become aware that there is this thing called the CSLR levy for around $4000 a year, and then ASIC levy of around $2000 per year. You are introduced to real-life compliance, where you need a 35 Page SOA to write $1 million worth of death cover for someone in a good job, who just happens to be a member of an industry fund.

    Someone sells you a book of business and you decide to become a life risk Specialist. Your new AFSL requires you to do an SOA on each one of those clients within a defined time period, because, after all, the previous adviser's advice has just become your advice, and we have to satisfy the PI insurer's requirements

    Then you have to deal with life insurers, the people who adopted LIF and then wondered why genuine new business dropped off by 60%. These same people reacted to that adviser-predicted reduction in new business by cutting out underwriting and new business staff and failing to fix legacy adviser-fronting computer systems. All of those failings, combined with ever-increasing onorous compliance requirements from ASIC, increase the cost to advise on life risk, while being paid just 60% of premium.

    Then you find if you decide to charge a fee for your advice, you have to survive the minefield of tax rulings as to whether or not your client can claim a tax deduction.

    And we haven't even mentioned the current claims paying attitudes being evidenced by most retail life insurers.

    Sooner or later the education that you received in your university must tell you this is not a real smart idea.

    Maybe Gus will offer newbie advisers a financial incentive – say $20,000 tax-free if you complete the first year. Otherwise this is just another Coalition boondoggle, just like the nuclear electricity plants

    Remember we are where we are because of successive Coalition governments looking after their bank mates, and a Labor government who looks only after their mates – the industry superfunds

    That's our bloomin' lot mate and Gus does not have the solutions

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