{"id":38008,"date":"2017-08-22T13:56:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T03:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=38008"},"modified":"2017-08-23T07:29:02","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T21:29:02","slug":"poll-results-risk-product-shelf-space-fees-conflicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2017\/08\/22\/poll-results-risk-product-shelf-space-fees-conflicted\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll Results &#8211; Risk Product Shelf Space Fees Conflicted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"polls-186\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t\t<div class=\"pollHeader\"><strong>Do life insurance product shelf space fees represent conflicted remuneration?<\/strong><\/div><div id=\"polls-186-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li>Yes <small>(74%)<\/small><div class=\"pollbar\" style=\"width: 74%\" title=\"Yes (74% | 86 Votes)\"><\/div><\/li>\n\t\t<li>No <small>(20%)<\/small><div class=\"pollbar\" style=\"width: 20%\" title=\"No (20% | 23 Votes)\"><\/div><\/li>\n\t\t<li>Not sure <small>(6%)<\/small><div class=\"pollbar\" style=\"width: 6%\" title=\"Not sure (6% | 7 Votes)\"><\/div><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_186_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"d3c80103bd\" \/>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>Most advisers believe life product shelf space fees paid to dealer groups represent conflicted remuneration.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->As we go to print, almost three advisers in four (74%) agree that these shelf space fees are conflicted. Meanwhile, one in five (19%) do not believe they are conflicted and 7% remain undecided.<\/p>\n<p>A few straight-forward comments we&#8217;ve received seem to encapsulate the state of play on this question, with one adviser noting,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em>&#8220;Of course it&#8217;s a conflict &#8211; why would the insurers pay shelf fees if they did not expect to exercise influence and gain a benefit.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>And this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em>&#8220;How can it not be conflicted remuneration?&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The circumstances ASIC says it would take into account when considering whether life product shelf space fees represented conflicted remuneration include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The size of the fee<\/li>\n<li>How the fee is calculated<\/li>\n<li>How the licensee uses the fee<\/li>\n<li>Whether the fee was passed onto advisers and in what form<\/li>\n<li>How the insurer\u2019s products were presented (eg: as \u2018preferred products\u2019)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While many advisers and others may form the view that these shelf space fees may be banned after 1 January 2018 (see: <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2017\/08\/15\/shelf-space-fees-may-continue-under-lif\/\">Shelf Space Fees May Continue Under LIF<\/a>), we note one of the circumstances listed above includes how the licensee would use the fees.<\/p>\n<p>We understand many licensees use risk product shelf space fees to fund adviser education, training, compliance and other services necessary to support the business requirements of advisers operating under the dealer group&#8217;s banner. While these payments may be perceived as inherently conflicted (as is risk commission), there may be a chance that shelf space fees may nonetheless continue to form a part of the industry &#8216;construct&#8217; in a post LIF world.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps a better way of framing this question would have been to ask whether you believe life product shelf space fees would continue under the LIF reforms, rather than simply asking if you think it&#8217;s a form of conflicted remuneration.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, our poll remains open for another week and we welcome your further thoughts on what is not necessarily an open-and-shut case&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most advisers believe life product shelf space fees paid to dealer groups represent conflicted remuneration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,49,270],"tags":[4247],"class_list":["post-38008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-compliance-regulation","category-dealer-groups","category-polls","category-remuneration","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38008","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=38008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}