AFA ‘harbours concern’ over Better Advice legislation
The Association Financial Advisers (AFA) is concerned about the Better Advice legislation and will use the Quality of Advice review in 2022 to push for further changes.
Phil Anderson, AFA general manager – policy and professionalism, said the AFA continued to “harbour some concerns” about the legislation.
“We are concerned about Australian Securities and Investments Commission [ASIC] being required to investigate minor breaches of the law, even if they do not choose to refer them to a Financial Services and Credit Panel [FSCP],” Anderson said.
“This will add unnecessarily to the cost of running the single disciplinary body, which ultimately financial advisers and their clients will need to pay for.
“We are also concerned about the complex mechanism for the transition and registration of some tax (financial) advisers under the Tax Practitioners Board.”
The AFA said it would advocate for both these issues to be reviewed and amended in the medium term.
"We will be calling for these changes as part of the Quality of Advice Review that the Government has committed to running in 2022," Anderson said.
"The passing of this bill represents an important milestone, as it brings us close to the end of the Royal Commission reform process and will allow the financial advice profession to focus on their important role of advising and supporting clients."
Despite that, it still welcomed the legislation which passed in the Senate late last week.
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