{"id":74772,"date":"2024-11-19T14:08:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T04:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=74772"},"modified":"2024-11-26T09:10:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T23:10:21","slug":"cali-concern-over-delay-in-implementing-qoa-review-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2024\/11\/19\/cali-concern-over-delay-in-implementing-qoa-review-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Concern Over Delay in Implementing QoA Review Reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Council of Australian Life Insurers<\/a> says the Government needs to act now to implement changes that will allow more consumers to access much-needed life insurance advice.<\/p>\n

In noting Australians can\u2019t wait any longer for the reforms contained in Tranche 2 of the Government\u2019s Delivering Better Financial Outcomes legislation package to be implemented, CALI CEO, Christine Cupitt<\/strong>, says without these changes, millions of Australians and their families are being left behind and not able to access the information that they need to make informed choices about their financial safety nets.<\/p>\n

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CALI CEO, Christine Cupitt, speaking to advisers at Riskinfocus 24 earlier this year …ordinary Australians are missing out on accessing the financial advice that is often desperately needed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At pains to differentiate the nature of the advice services envisaged to be delivered by life company staff following the implementation of the Tranche 2 DBFO reforms, Cupitt emphasised the role insurers want to play is very different to what CALI views as the critically important services financial advisers already provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to get in the way of the important work advisers are doing,\u201d says Cupitt, adding that for life insurers, \u201c\u2026this is about providing basic customer service, such as being able to answer questions and provide simple scaled advice about our own products to people who ask for it at no additional cost to them.\u201d (See also: CALI Reinforces Complementary Risk Advice Agenda<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

What is causing concern for Cupitt and for CALI, however, is the delay that has emerged in the Treasury\u2019s release of an exposure draft of Tranche 2 of the proposed DBFO legislation ahead of its introduction into parliament.<\/p>\n

She says any further delay in passing Tranche 2 of the DBFO reforms, which includes allowing a new class of advice to be implemented, won\u2019t just hurt today but will lead to a chain reaction of financial uncertainty over generations.<\/p>\n

Cupitt will be in Canberra this week to meet with Minister Jones and other federal MPs to further clarify CALI’s views on the critical need for the advice reforms to be legislated before the next election.<\/p>\n

…there is this huge unmet advice need<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been really clear that Australians and their families just can\u2019t wait any longer for this \u2013 that there is this huge unmet advice need. We\u2019ve got a growing underinsurance problem. We know that there are approximately 3.4million Australians who are underinsured for basic income protection needs and that problem is only growing in the absence of access to choice around financial advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cupitt notes CALI\u2019s position is informed both anecdotally, by the nature of the daily enquiries made directly to all insurers by Australian consumers, but also by research stemming from its quarterly Life Insurance Sentiment Tracker research, recent findings from which have revealed:<\/p>\n