The Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) has hired a QC to represent it before the High Court, where it hopes to argue that proposals to ban grandfathered revenue are unconstitutional.
The group’s executive director, Peter Johnston, believed that its chances were “better than even”, saying that constitutional restrictions requiring the acquisition of property meant that particular remuneration structures could only be band prospectively.
It planned to use comments by then-Minister for Financial Services, Bill Shorten, to this effect to support its case.
The AIOFP didn’t clarify however, what its legal argument would be in relation to the proposed bans taking effect going forward. A statement from its legal team said that it was taking advice on a potential challenge to the validity of the proposed amendments to grandfathering without compensation to advisers, but it was unclear why such an argument would have standing before the High Court.
Johnston said the push to ban grandfathering was based on “trash” claims by consumer groups and institutional lobbying, and had become a “political football” used by Shorten and Scott Morrison to “grasp some political kudos”.
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