The Government should move to make major, vertically-integrated financial services include all Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated insurers on their approved product lists (APLS), according to ClearView Wealth Limited chief executive, Simon Swanson.
Swanson has used the announcement of the Government’s changes to the Life Insurance Framework to call for an end to what he has described as one of the industry’s most “pervasive conflicts of interest”.
Broadly welcoming the LIF changes, particularly reducing the claw back provisions to two years, the ClearView chief executive said the Government’s announcement had clearly recognised the importance of broadening approved product lists (APLs) — something “which is critical to ensuring that consumers are able to access the product most suited to their individual circumstances”.
He said ClearView had been a champion for the principle that all vertically integrated industry participants should be required to have all life insurers on their APLs.
“The Minister has charged industry with the responsibility for effecting change in this area, and it is vital that an effective standard is developed by industry to secure this outcome,” Swanson said.
“We look forward to the industry stepping up to the plate to ensure that one of the industry’s most pervasive conflicts of interest is properly dealt with by requiring vertically integrated companies to list all APRA-regulated life insurers on their Approved Product Lists,” he said.
