General Advice Poll – Ticking Time Bomb?

Our latest poll is asking you to consider the emergence of general advice as a growing contributor to risk new business being written and the guiderails that can or should apply to how it is used.

The recent AIA Australia – Advice at the Crossroads Round Table spent some time debating the merits of general advice within the context of this avenue being a part of the solution to deliver more life insurance solutions – especially to lower and middle-income consumers.

As we reported a few weeks ago, there was general support from different stakeholders for utilising the general advice process for risk solutions, but this support was couched inside commentary that there need to be guiderails applied to how general advice is delivered (see: General Advice – Part of Underinsurance Solution or ‘Ticking Time Bomb’?).

Support was not universal, however, with caution expressed by Skye Wealth’s Phil Thompson, who referenced the potential for general advice to become a ticking time bomb for the reputational foundations being re-built for financial advice in Australia.

[can] an adviser who has switched from personal to general advice …continue to advise the same clients

Speaking further with Riskinfo, Thompson queries in particular whether an adviser who has switched from personal to general advice could continue to advise the same clients in that new capacity, given the history of personal advice which preceded their move general advice.

We think you get the picture, for what is neither a simple nor straight-forward conversation. It has nuances.

Tell us what you think and we’ll report back next week, where we’ll include recommendations made by some about self-regulatory guiderails under which they  believe general advice should operate…