AFA welcomes positive message from Jones
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has signalled the minister for financial services, Stephen Jones, is very willing to help fix the financial advice industry.
AFA chief executive, Phil Anderson, said he had met with the new minister, who took over from Jane Hume after the election, and that he was positive about the response.
In discussion with AFA president, Sam Perera, Anderson said: “We’re positive about the messages we got from him. In particular, he remains committed to addressing the issue of the education standard and will deal with that as a priority. He’s also committed to the Quality of Advice Review.
“Not only is he committed to dealing with that review, he is also very willing to look at other opportunities to fix the mess in the financial advice space.
“There are quite positive signs coming out of that office.”
Last week, Jones made a statement that he was committed to ensuring Australians had access to high-quality and affordable financial advice.
The AFA had made its own submission to the Review as well as contributing to a joint submission with other financial services organisations.
Its priorities included:
- The regulatory obligations for the provision of financial advice should be proportionate to the level of complexity and risk of client detriment;
- Achievement of regulatory certainty to better enable the provision of limited scope advice, including in terms of the requirements for the fact find process;
- Increased regulatory certainty on the obligations with respect to demonstration of compliance with the Best Interest Duty;
- Removal of the Best Interests Duty safe harbour and ability to demonstrate professional judgement or repeal of the “other steps” obligation and the ASIC record keeping class order;
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
Sharing his reasoning in joining the FSC board, WT Financial chief executive, Keith Cullen, believes “product and advice cannot be separated” from each other in the current environment.
The Emerge Foundation, a charity run by financial advisers and fund managers, has announced a scholarship program to help veterans transition into tertiary education.
In an open letter, Sequoia chief executive Garry Crole has hit out against shareholders “with a personal axe to grind” as he fights for his job ahead of an EGM.
The JAWG has announced it is in talks with Treasury around five “core principles” to strengthen the education standards for new entrants to the financial advice space.
