AFA and FPA in accord on Trowbridge

There appears to be significant unanimity between the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) on the direction in which the planner community should be headed in the wake of the Trowbridge recommendations, according to AFA chief executive, Brad Fox.

Commenting on the release yesterday of an FPA "life insurance blueprint", Fox told Money Management he believed the position which had been outlined by the FPA coincided very closely with that of the AFA.

"There are a great many similarities between the AFA position and that of the FPA and that should send a signal that there is considerable unanimity in the planner community about the direction in which we would like to see this headed," he said.

However Fox reiterated that given the comments of the Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, the time-frames for delivering an outcome were tight and that there was only limited scope for the sort of consultative approach which had been signalled by the FPA.

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He predicted that more licensees would this week, in similar fashion to the Centrepoint Alliance, announce the removal of high upfront payments and he hoped that this would lead to the creation of an industry standard on the issue and therefore some breathing space.

Fox noted the consensus view of delegates to a Money Management/AFA breakfast in Melbourne on Friday that life/risk advisers felt rushed by the processes around Trowbridge, particularly those which had followed the delivery of the final report.

He said discussions between the major parties were continuing but that while achieving unanimity around the removal of high upfronts seemed possible, it might be prudent not to rush the processes around the more difficult and intricate elements.