FPA wants ARs covered as whistleblowers
Authorised representatives (ARs) should be entitled to the same whistle-blower protections as salaried employees of a dealer group, according to the Financial Planning Association (FPA).
The FPA has used a submission to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee review of whistleblowing legislation to urge that the intricate nature of the financial planning industry be taken into account when it comes to whistleblower protections.
“Due to the [Australian Financial Services License] AFSL regime in the Corporations Act, the structure of the advice market is unique - it has a large number of small businesses who hold and operate under their own AFSL (approximately 57 per cent of licensees have 10 advisers or less 2),” it said. “But there is also a large number of small business financial planning practices that are authorised and operate under the AFSL of a large dealer group, but run their own separate business.”
“Many authorised representatives operate under some of the policies set by their ASFL,” the submission said.
The FPA said that while an authorised representative was not an employee or officer of the AFSL company, they might be in a position of whistleblower (against their licensee) and need to be captured by the definition of eligible whistlebower.
It said dealer groups also usually had employed advisers and that both employed and authorised representatives might play the role of whistleblower in relation to their employer and/or the entity that holds the AFSL they operate under.
“Authorised representatives, as well as all other whistleblowers who are afforded the whistleblower protections under the Bill, should have access to the company’s whistelblower policy,” the submission said. “Limiting access to the company’s whistleblowing policy to current employees and officers, significantly disadvantages and discourages other potential whistleblowers, particularly former employees, authorised representatives and contractors.”
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