All stakeholders and associations have been invited to meet with Federal Assistant Treasurer, Kelly O’Dwyer, and high on the agenda would be clarifying the definitions of clawback, and lapse periods, according to the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
National president, Deborah Kent, told a media briefing at the AFA 2015 National Adviser Conference in Cairns that all parties previously involved in the Life Insurance Framework (LIF), including Financial Planning Association (FPA), the Financial Services Council (FSC), and the AFA would gather.
But she could not comment on whether this would be an opportunity for the parties to negotiate an agreement.
“I can’t talk for other stakeholders. I can only talk for us. I guess the problem has been that it has been sitting there for quite a while which is why people have started to think about it,” Kent said.
Kent said the AFA would discuss the timing of the three-year clawback with O’Dwyer, which had been shortened to July, and clarify whether there was flexibility around that time period.
“How I feel going into it is we know that Kelly has clearly stated to us that the framework’s there to work with, but she’s happy to work around clarification around a number of issues,” Kent said.
Kent said while advisers expressed concern around life insurance reforms at the AFA AGM, many advisers had indicated that they had already begun implementing the changes and many were comfortable with the changes.
“Change will continue. We’re an industry that’s pulling itself into a profession and with that there’s going to come some heartache for a lot of people,” she said.
“When we get some clarity I think it’ll make it easier and then we need to work with them as to how they can work on their businesses to get the right outcomes.”
