{"id":16884,"date":"2012-08-29T10:14:47","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T00:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=16884"},"modified":"2012-08-29T11:18:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T01:18:08","slug":"concerns-mount-over-accountants-insurance-commission-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2012\/08\/29\/concerns-mount-over-accountants-insurance-commission-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Concerns Mount Over Accountants’ Insurance Commission Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of one of the major professional accounting bodies have expressed concerns over the proposed ban on insurance commissions to be applied by the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards Board (APESB).<\/p>\n

In preparing its submission to APESB on the draft APES 230 Financial Planning Standard, <\/em>the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAA) said its members were concerned about a number of measures contained within the regulations.\u00a0 The ICAA specifically singled out insurance commissions and the retrospective nature of the standard as two of the\u00a0areas of concern.<\/p>\n

APES 230 sets out the principles for accountants who provide financial advice to their clients, and includes recommendations relating to fees and charging, acting in the clients’ best interest, and disclosure (see: Risk Commissions to be Banned Under New Accounting Standards<\/a>).\u00a0 It proposes that commissions are banned as a form of remuneration for all products, including insurance.\u00a0 In addition, the ban on conflicted remuneration will apply retrospectively (after a two-year transition period).<\/p>\n

Head of Financial Advisory Services at the ICAA, Hugh Elvy<\/strong>, hosted workshop sessions with members around Australia to discuss the draft standard.<\/p>\n

“Members have flagged a number of important considerations, including insurance commissions, the retrospective nature of the draft standard and the timing for implementation,” Mr Elvy said.<\/p>\n

Accountants who do not currently provide financial planning advice on a fee for service basis will need to make changes to the way they conduct business<\/h6>\n

When issuing the draft standard for consultation in late July, APESB Chair, Kate Spargo<\/strong>, said the regulations had been in development since 2007, and already been through several public consultations.<\/p>\n

“Amendments have been made, where appropriate, that reflect stakeholder feedback and the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) legislative reforms,” Ms Spargo said.<\/p>\n

“Accountants who do not currently provide financial planning advice on a fee for service basis will need to make changes to the way they conduct business. \u00a0The Board is setting a high standard for members of the accounting bodies and it believes that this will contribute to the ongoing professionalism of those accountants and by doing so, enhance consumer confidence and loyalty,” she added.<\/p>\n

Final submissions on the proposed standards are due on 7 September 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of one of the major professional accounting bodies have expressed concerns over the proposed ban on insurance commissions to be applied by the Accounting Professional & Ethical Standards Board (APESB).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[282,8,270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-associations","category-compliance-regulation","category-remuneration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}