![\"AIA](\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2015\/03\/Damien-Mu-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Speaking at a recent thought leadership event hosted by riskinfo, AIA Australia CEO,Damien Mu<\/strong>, reflected that the broader life insurance industry supports the notion of aligning the interests of consumers, advisers, licensees and insurers. He said there is no perfect solution on adviser remuneration that will satisfy all stakeholders, and it has been demonstrated over time how difficult these issues have been to address and resolve.<\/p>\n Mr Mu commented the lack of resolution over recent years has been to the detriment of the industry and public perception. He emphasised the industry must consider the Trowbridge recommendations as a package of structural reform, and not consider the remuneration proposal in isolation. In addition, he made clear that these were “recommendations” and it was now up to industry to act – a message that he said has also been clearly given by government.<\/p>\n In accepting that change is coming, Mr Mu said it would be a shame if the industry became fractured by it. He said some \u2018conspiracy theories\u2019 could emerge in these emotional debates, but he called for unity, saying \u201cWe need the industry to stay together on these issues as we debate them.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that while the Financial Services Council had a difficult position in representing all the views of its constituent members, he was confident that it would come to a resolution on the reforms needed to address the Trowbridge Report and the process was working very well with the FSC focused on getting the right outcome.<\/p>\n Mr Mu said he does not believe a remuneration model can exist without it allowing appropriate cost recovery. \u201cIf we have a remuneration model that doesn\u2019t support the sustainability of advice and the practicality of the work advisers do, first and foremost, and then an independent advice model, then that is not healthy, and does not achieve the desired outcome of serving consumers.\u201d He added, \u201c\u2026time and debate on the appropriate sustainable remuneration framework was required in a short space of time to meet government expectations. Mr Trowbridge has put a stake in the ground, and from where the industry currently stands, it would be a significant shift \u2026 and we need to achieve consensus amongst the industry to move to a model that is sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Mu added that the debate around the reforms must recognise the important role advisers play in ensuring financial protection for their clients. \u201cWe cannot lose sight of the great work advisers do to ensure Australians have appropriate protection. Where would the thousands of Australians and their families that received a claim payment be now, if they did not seek and obtain quality advice?”<\/p>\n Mr Mu continued, \u201cWe are confident of getting consensus within the industry to achieve changes that are meaningful, and support what we\u2019re all trying to achieve\u201d. He said people are not challenging that change is required, but urged that any change should be \u2018reasonable\u2019 and undertaken within the context of the broader life insurance environment to avoid unintended consequences associated with change.<\/p>\n The call for unity also extended beyond life companies to licensees and advisers, according to Mr Mu. Citing product innovation as an example, he noted that \u201c\u2026we\u2019re talking about an environment where the left hand and the right hand need each other \u2013 where advisers and insurers need to work together to serve the Australian community to obtain appropriate protection for them and their families. We can innovate with product, but if we don\u2019t have advice partners who will take that product forward it will sit on the shelf and it will simply become one of those \u2018It was a nice idea at the time\u2019 initiatives that goes nowhere.\u2019 So this is where we do need to work in partnership with licensees and advisers\u201d<\/p>\n These comments by Mr Mu were made at a special ‘Trowbridge’ industry round table event, following the release of the Trowbridge Final Report. As well as Mr Mu, the round table was attended by FSC CEO, Sally Loane<\/strong>, together with key licensee and adviser risk specialist voices from around the country. The full report will be available for all advisers as a feature in the next edition of riskinfo eMagazine, due out shortly…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AIA Australia’s CEO has urged the life insurance industry to stay together as it debates the issues stemming from the Trowbridge recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,241,270],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-compliance-regulation","category-conferences-and-events","category-remuneration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29561","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}…there is no perfect solution on adviser remuneration<\/h6>\n
…we need to achieve consensus amongst the industry to move to a model that is sustainable<\/h6>\n