{"id":52751,"date":"2020-10-27T08:24:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T22:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=52751"},"modified":"2020-11-03T13:39:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T03:39:14","slug":"call-to-level-the-playing-field-for-financial-advisers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2020\/10\/27\/call-to-level-the-playing-field-for-financial-advisers\/","title":{"rendered":"Call to Level the Playing Field for Financial Advisers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ampfpacommunity.force.com\/Community_home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Advisers Association<\/a> (TAA) says any new model for financial advice must level the playing field for financial advisers.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on a research report launched last week by the Financial Services Council, which proposes a new model for financial advice (see: <a style=\"text-decoration-line: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2020\/10\/20\/launch-of-radical-plan-to-revamp-financial-advice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Launch of Radical Plan to Revamp Financial Advice<\/a>), TAA CEO, <strong>Neil Macdonald<\/strong> says that those &#8220;&#8230;best qualified and experienced to provide advice currently have their hands tied by a range of factors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He says these factors include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Product-focused legislation<\/li>\n<li>Multiple regulators<\/li>\n<li>Licensee policies and processes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;They are not enabled to provide simple advice and they should be,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<p>Macdonald says in a statement that ASIC\u2019s temporary Covid-19 relief measures around superannuation are an example of the uneven playing field for financial advisers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_52753\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52753\" style=\"width: 151px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Neil-McDonald-e1603749469233.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-52753\" src=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Neil-McDonald-e1603749469233-247x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"151\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Neil-McDonald-e1603749469233-247x300.jpg 247w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2020\/10\/Neil-McDonald-e1603749469233.jpg 268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 151px) 100vw, 151px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-52753\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil Macdonald&#8230;the adviser should be subject to the same rules and disclosure requirements as those providing intrafund advice on behalf of superannuation fund trustees&#8230;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe measures include a temporary no-action position for superannuation trustees to expand the scope of personal advice that may be provided by, or on behalf of, the superannuation trustee as intrafund advice. However, financial advisers must still meet Best Interests Duty and Safe Harbour obligations for new clients,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>He adds that if a client wants to see their financial adviser for intrafund advice, the adviser should be subject to the same rules and disclosure requirements as those providing intrafund advice on behalf of superannuation fund trustees.<\/p>\n<p>TAA believes that terms such as \u2018general financial advice\u2019, \u2018intrafund advice\u2019 and \u2018roboadvice\u2019 cause confusion among consumers and should be redefined as \u2018general financial information\u2019, \u2018intrafund information\u2019 and \u2018robofinance\u2019 respectively.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also need to arrive at an appropriate term for people who provide financial information, particularly given that the terms \u2018financial adviser\u2019 and \u2018financial planner\u2019 are likely to soon be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He adds that the new term must make it obvious to consumers that when, for example, they seek intrafund information from a provider, they will only receive information about that firm\u2019s products. He suggests an appropriate term might be \u2018financial assistant\u2019.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;the industry needs to move much faster towards being a profession&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Macdonald also says the industry needs to move much faster towards being a profession, although it is not an easy task, given that even the Corporations Act focuses on product rather than advice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommissioner Hayne missed a great opportunity during the Royal Commission when he did not call for the separation of advice and product. It is very difficult for the industry to move towards greater professionalism without it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>TAA is a non-profit, member-based association with all its members being authorised representatives of AMP Financial Planning and Hillross Financial Services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Advisers Association (TAA) says any new model for financial advice must level the playing field for financial advisers. Commenting on a research report launched last week by the Financial Services Council, which proposes a new model for financial advice (see: Launch of Radical Plan to Revamp Financial Advice), TAA CEO, Neil Macdonald says that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":52756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6994,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-compliance-regulation","category-education","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52751","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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}