The Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) this morning sent out a report outlining the potential impact of the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority’s (FASEA’s) proposed reforms to every federal politician, following a call yesterday for advisers to get clients to petition the Government on the issue.
The report, emotively entitled “The FASEA fiasco: An unfortunate story of senseless megalomania destroying an industry, careers, jobs and families”, sought to press on politicians that a loss of advisers could end up hurting Australians.
“A major consideration the Government should be aware of is the millions of satisfied consumers who actually do respect and love their adviser and will be traumatised if this person prematurely retires or is forced out of the industry. This particularly applies to the elderly retirees and widows who are totally reliant upon this person,” the report said.
“It is estimated that around 10,000 Advisers will leave the industry over the next 4 years as a result of [Life Insurance Framework] LIF and FASEA ramifications, the Nation cannot afford this to happen.
“The other severe ramifications of this draconian attitude are basic Human Rights violation, gender/age discrimination and it is contrary to the Government’s push for citizens to work post Age Pension eligibility to mitigate the nation’s future massive welfare liabilities.”
As Money Management reported yesterday, the AIOFP said that these latter matters would be pursued through the courts if necessary.
The report said that while the AIOFP supported the need to put in place a formal process or professionalism and education for the industry in general, this needed to be done “in the right way and over the right time frame”.
“It seems FASEA’s major objective is not to facilitate higher education/ethical standards but decimate an industry, leave thousands unemployed and destroy the businesses of thousands of hard-working Australians and their families – it is most un-Australian,” AIOFP executive director, Peter Johnston, wrote at the beginning of the report.
