The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has directly asked members whether licensing arrangement for financial planning should change and about the future status of Australian Financial Services Licensees.
The question has been posed in a discussion paper launched by FPA during its national congress in Melbourne and refers directly to matters raise during the Royal Commission.
The discussion paper canvasses a range of issues but significantly focuses on both regulation and licensing asking whether the current regulations achieve their goal and whether licensing arrangement for financial planning should change.
It then asks whether, if licensing arrangement should change, what planners would recommend?
“In this context, there also remains several outstanding recommendations of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry,” the discussion paper said.
It noted the Royal Commission recommendation 2.10 suggesting the establishment of a single, disciplinary body for financial planners, stating: “While it is not clear how the Government will implement this recommendation, the Royal Commission was attempting to address the complexity, overlap and potential inconsistency that currently exists”.
It said the Royal Commission also identified a need to simplify the law governing financial services, remove exceptions and qualifications in the law and focus on fundamental norms and that “as an example, it identified the best interest duty and associated “safe harbour” provisions in section 961B of the Corporations Act”.
The discussion paper, launched by FPA chief executive, Dante De Gori is aimed at allowing members to respond to the issues via the organisation’s FPA Community. Next month.
