The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has signalled it believes a key objective in making advice more attractive to consumers is the provision of advice which is “limited and affordable”.
What is more ASIC has said that as part of its current work, it is seeking to identify the “true cost of providing advice”.
Just days after signalling making scaled advice easier to access, the regulator has told a Parliamentary Committee that it will be asking licensees and advisers to respond to a consultation paper looking at the issue of limited and affordable advice as part of its broader unmet advice needs project.
In an answer to a question on notice from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, ASIC said that its “first public output for the unmet advice needs project is a consultation paper, which seeks to gather information from industry participants (licensees and individual advisers) to help us understand what impediments/issues exist in relation to them providing limited and affordable personal advice to consumers”.
“Our focus is on what practical steps ASIC or industry could take to promote limited and affordable advice,” it said.
The ASIC answer suggested that the consultation would be released to the industry in the current quarter.
“It is too early to assess the success of ASIC’s unmet advice needs project,” the regulator said.
“ASIC has not engaged an independent consultant to analyse the impact of additional regulation on the financial advice sector. We think that this is research that it would be more appropriate for Government to obtain. However, as part of the Unmet Advice Needs project, we are undertaking research about the true cost of providing advice.”
