If you are reading this article on the cover date for this edition there are only a handful of working days until the release of the Australian Consumers’ Association (ACA) report on the planning industry.

This report is widely touted as one of the most critical reports regarding the quality of financial planning advice. After examining its findings, Money Management can confirm this is the case.

In an exclusive in this edition, Money Management has reported on the key findings, and the ACA has not softened its long held stance that financial planning is characterised by poor practice, adviser self interest and consumers coming off second best.

And it’s these angles of the report that will be making headlines and appearing on the news days after the report comes out.

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has already fired a pre-emptive salvo, with chief executive Ken Breakspear releasing comments last week stating that sweeping generalisations and sensational headlines will do nothing to promote improvements or a better consumer understanding of financial planners.

Critics of the ACA will question the agenda behind the report in light of comments made by chief executive Louise Sylvan last year in which the financial services industry was described as structurally corrupt.

In the last year, financial planners have had to contend with the regulators coming to their door demanding they show they are compliant with licensing regimes and educational standards, but this report will change that dynamic, and arm clients with appropriate questions to pitch at their adviser.

This means that advisers will be under pressure, in the face of a media storm, to justify their existence, their processes and the way they charge clients.

If you haven’t been doing the full service financial advice offering, then the coming weeks may be a trying time.

However, if you have acted properly, your clients won’t ask curly questions or demand answers regarding these issues, as they will already know the reasons why and understand where the added value is.

Between now and the 11th of February, the date of the report’s release, ask yourself if this is the case. If not, then maybe the ACA is not unjustified in its harsh statements.