{"id":37525,"date":"2017-06-27T20:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=37525"},"modified":"2017-06-27T20:01:56","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T10:01:56","slug":"afa-claims-independence-restriction-is-too-narrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2017\/06\/27\/afa-claims-independence-restriction-is-too-narrow\/","title":{"rendered":"AFA Claims ‘Independence’ Restriction is Too Narrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFA has labelled efforts by ASIC to restrict the usage of terms relating to \u2018independence\u2019 from institutions and product-providers as too narrow and not reflective of the actions of advisers or the views of consumers.<\/p>\n

\"AFA<\/a>
AFA Chief Executive, Phil Kewin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Responding to ASIC\u2019s announcement that it had limited who could use the term \u2018independently owned\u2019, \u2018non-aligned\u2019 and \u2018non-institutionally owned\u2019<\/a> under terms set out in Section 923A of the Corporations Act, the AFA stated the legislation was \u2018unnecessarily restrictive\u2019 and there were very few advisers who would be able to use the terms under the new stricter definition.<\/p>\n

AFA Chief Executive, Philip Kewin<\/strong> said the definition included factors that did not impact on independence in the delivery of advice and any test of independence \u201c\u2026should be in the eyes of the consumer and not influenced by structural considerations that are included in the current legislation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kewin said the AFA took the view that an adviser under a licensee that was considered to be \u2018non-aligned\u2019 and operating with a broad APL that included a non-approved product process, could remain independent in when selecting products even if they received commissions for life insurance advice.<\/p>\n

…any test of independence “\u2026should be in the eyes of the consumer and not influenced by structural considerations that are included in the current legislation\u201d<\/h6>\n

\u201cIf, as is currently the case, every insurer offers commissions at a broadly similar level, which will shortly be restricted by the Life Insurance Framework, then how does the existence of commissions influence the independence of the selection of a product?\u201d Kewin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEqually, if a licensee receives volume bonuses, from a range of investment and superannuation product providers for existing pre-FoFA business, then how does this influence the independence of advice provided by the advisers to new clients?\u201d Kewin added.<\/p>\n

Kewin said the AFA considered the best way to restrict the use of the terms was by legislative change while recognising the work some advisers have already done to present themselves as independent, impartial and unbiased.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany advisers have gone to great lengths to establish themselves and their businesses as \u2018independent\u2019 and \u2018non-aligned\u2019, often at great expense, yet only a few would now qualify under the current strict definition of \u2018independent\u2019,\u201d Kewin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is obvious that these words cannot be used in the institutionally-owned space, however we do believe that they should be available for more than the current legislation allows,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The AFA has labelled efforts by ASIC to restrict the usage of terms relating to \u2018independence\u2019 from institutions and product-providers as too narrow and not reflective of the actions of advisers or the views of consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[282,8,6831],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-associations","7":"category-compliance-regulation","8":"category-practice-marketing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37525","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=37525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}