{"id":44225,"date":"2019-03-29T09:19:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T23:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=44225"},"modified":"2019-04-03T05:30:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T19:30:48","slug":"consumers-confusing-general-and-personal-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/03\/29\/consumers-confusing-general-and-personal-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumers Confusing General and Personal Advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASIC has released research demonstrating consumers have difficulty in understanding the difference between general and personal advice, which it says exposes them to a greater risk of poor financial decisions.<\/p>\n

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ASIC Deputy Chair, Karen Chester<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The regulator says its report, ‘Financial advice: Mind the gap<\/a>‘, identifies substantial gaps in consumer comprehension and understanding of general and personal financial advice.<\/p>\n

Raising concerns over these findings, ASIC Deputy Chair, Karen Chester<\/strong>, noted, \u201cThis disturbing gap in understanding whether the advice they are getting is personal or not means many consumers are under the false premise their interests are being prioritised, when no such protection exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chester added that the survey not only revealed consumers are not familiar with the concepts of general and personal advice, but only 53 per cent of those surveyed correctly identified \u2018general\u2019 advice: \u201cAnd even when provided the general advice warning, nearly 40 per cent of those surveyed wrongly believed the adviser had an obligation to take their personal circumstances into account,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chester added that the report highlights the importance of consumer awareness and understanding of the distinction between personal and general advice, in which FoFA protections only apply when personal advice is provided. She said these include obligations for advisers to:<\/p>\n