{"id":46877,"date":"2019-10-22T18:23:07","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T08:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=46877"},"modified":"2019-10-29T10:44:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T00:44:57","slug":"latest-poll-adviser-conflicts-of-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/10\/22\/latest-poll-adviser-conflicts-of-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest Poll &#8211; Adviser Conflicts of Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"polls-222\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t\t<div class=\"pollHeader\"><strong>I have concerns around FASEA's Code of Ethics Standard 3, which requires that I don't advise, refer or act in any other manner where I have a conflict of interest or duty...<\/strong><\/div><div id=\"polls-222-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li>Agree <small>(86%)<\/small><div class=\"pollbar\" style=\"width: 86%\" title=\"Agree (86% | 297 Votes)\"><\/div><\/li>\n\t\t<li>Disagree <small>(11%)<\/small><div class=\"pollbar\" style=\"width: 11%\" title=\"Disagree (11% | 38 Votes)\"><\/div><\/li>\n\t\t<li>Not sure <small>(3%)<\/small><div class=\"pollbar\" style=\"width: 3%\" title=\"Not sure (3% | 9 Votes)\"><\/div><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><div style=\"text-align: center\"><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_222_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"8c0b49cffb\" \/>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>Our latest poll is seeking to take the temperature of the adviser community around the current approach to conflicts of interest within FASEA&#8217;s Code of Ethics.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->At the end of last week, FASEA released guidance notes around its Code of Ethics for financial planners and advisers &#8211; a code to which all authorised representatives must adhere from 1 January 2020 (see: <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/10\/18\/fasea-releases-code-of-ethics-guidance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FASEA Releases Code of Ethics Guidance<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>These guidance notes have been met with strong opposition by the AFA, which maintains the current wording of Standard 3 and the guidance notes accompanying it go beyond FASEA&#8217;s remit (see: <a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/10\/22\/afa-slams-fasea-code-of-ethics-guidance-on-conflicts-of-interest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AFA Slams FASEA&#8230;<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>There are two perspectives from which to consider this question:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Perspective One<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This perspective relates to how an industry becomes a profession. Some ethicists, including FASEA Board member, <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.org.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Dr Simon Longstaff AO<\/strong><\/a>, argue that one of the indicators synonymous with a profession is where the organisation seeks to apply standards that sit above those required by law.<\/p>\n<p>As pointed out by the AFA this week, even the Corporations Act only requires conflicts of interest to be managed, and the law specifically permits life insurance commissions and other conflicted arrangements. This means that FASEA Code of Ethics Standard 3 is definitely set at a higher benchmark than that required by law.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Perspective Two<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Perspective two welcomes FASEA to the real world. This perspective, held by the AFA, holds that &#8211; in the real world &#8211; conflicts of interest exist everywhere, in any profession, and it&#8217;s the responsibility of both individuals and organisations to manage those conflicts when they arise. In the case of the financial advice profession, this management of any conflicts of interests that exist require that the client is ultimately provided with advice that is in their best interests.<\/p>\n<p>As is often the case with our polls, the devil can be in the detail. For example, perspectives one and two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In this case, it may come down to the guidance notes that will serve to inform execution of the Code of Ethics. But at the moment, the AFA is seeing potential danger and more troubles ahead for advisers, given the language in these notes released last week.<\/p>\n<p>For a sector that&#8217;s been pushed from pillar to post over recent times, this is yet another issue to be added to the overflowing catalogue of issues that advisers will be required to address and resolve.<\/p>\n<p>For the time being, it&#8217;s over to you for your considered thoughts, and we&#8217;ll report back to you next week&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our latest poll is seeking to take the temperature of the adviser community around the current approach to conflicts of interest within FASEA&#8217;s Code of Ethics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[282,8,49],"tags":[4247],"class_list":["post-46877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-associations","category-compliance-regulation","category-polls","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46877","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=46877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}