{"id":46885,"date":"2019-10-23T13:44:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T03:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=46885"},"modified":"2019-10-30T06:15:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T20:15:44","slug":"call-for-ban-on-life-insurance-apls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2019\/10\/23\/call-for-ban-on-life-insurance-apls\/","title":{"rendered":"Call For Ban on Life Insurance APLs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bank whistleblower, Jeff Morris<\/strong>, has called for the government to ban the use of life insurance Approved Product Lists by vertically-integrated advice licensees, citing the inability of institutions to properly manage conflicts of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bank whistleblower, Jeff Morris …calling for a ban on life insurance APLs\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a paper on the consumer impact of APLs, the financial industry thought leader claims institutionally-aligned Australian Financial Services Licensees continue to funnel new clients into in-house products, potentially in breach of the Best Interest Duty obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn putting this paper together, it became clear that institutionally-aligned AFSLs knew all the right things to say and how to look remorseful but scratch the surface and there have been no real changes to the culture and practices inside these organisations,\u201d Morris said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHeavily restricted life insurance APLs are still the norm and not even heat from the recent Financial Services Royal Commission has been enough to compel them to apply higher standards and put their clients first.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
ClearView Managing Director, Simon Swanson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The paper was commissioned by ClearView and titled Approved product lies: Combating the manipulation of <\/i>advice and claims that there is no reason why any of the 12 retail life insurers regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, should be excluded from advice consideration, reasoning that they are all subject to strict capital requirements and all offer quality products.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the nature, purpose and intent of the Future of Financial Advice reforms and the Royal Commission\u2019s recommendations are to improve advice quality, address conflicts of interest and boost transparency to ensure a better deal for consumers then I don\u2019t see how restricted APLs can co-exist in the new regulatory environment,\u201d Morris said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAPLs are at odds with the government\u2019s agenda and changing community standards, and it is time for unrestricted choice of life insurance provider to be mandated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

“…it is time for unrestricted choice of life insurance provider to be mandated.”<\/span><\/h6>\n

ClearView Managing Director, Simon Swanson<\/strong> and Sue Laing<\/strong>, described as a pioneer of life insurance research in Australia, also provide commentary in the paper. <\/span><\/p>\n

It explores the inception of APLs back to the 1980s and tests the APL hypothesis, which Morris concludes does not stack up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Swanson commented: \u201cJeff\u2019s findings continue to raise major concerns about the advice industry\u2019s structure; the limited product choice available to consumers, particularly in life insurance; and the inability of the Financial Services Council to get its members to voluntarily adhere to high standards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s often suggested that people don\u2019t deliberately act in bad faith but rather mistakes are made unintentionally. However, it is no accident that the vast majority of clients connected to an institutionally-aligned financial adviser find their way into in-house products. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the regulator agrees that this is not a coincidence but rather the orchestrated outcome of flawed processes then they must act to ban restricted APLs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bank whistleblower, Jeff Morris, has called for the government to ban the use of life insurance Approved Product Lists by vertically-integrated advice licensees, citing the inability of institutions to properly manage conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":46947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[4247],"class_list":{"0":"post-46885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-compliance-regulation","8":"category-products","9":"tag-feature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46885","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}