Jo-Anne Bloch
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has called on the Financial Services Working Group (FSWG) to move from the one-size-fits-all approach to regulation and make reforms broader in scope.
The chief executive of the FPA, Jo-Anne Bloch, said: “The FPA believes that the FSWG’s focus on ‘intra-fund’ advice is not broad enough to address the serious issues of cost and accessibility of advice. There is a need to focus on fixing the problems in inherent in the Financial Services Reform regime.”
The FPA’s recommendations include encouraging more financial service providers to adopt shorter Statements of Advice, modifying the definition of ‘personal advice’ within the Corporations Act to allow financial planners to give advice with greater regulatory certainty and ensuring a minimum training requirement to anyone who gives advice.
“Seven out of 10 Australians still do not seek advice because they don’t think they need it. We strongly support a consumer literacy and financial capability campaign around the value of financial advice,” Bloch said.
