CPA Australia to issue advice guidelines

By Craig Phillips

CPA Australia will roll out specific financial advice guidelines in the form of a professional statement to its membership later this year as part of a move to ensure members offering planning services meet the association’s ethical and code of conduct standards.

“The statement is designed to ensure those members of CPA Australia who are specialising in financial planning have a clear set of guidelines to follow to achieve the standards of professionalism we would expect them to demonstrate across all aspects of their business,” CPA Australia financial planning manager Chris Benson says.

According to Benson, the guidelines will be particularly useful to the more than 450 members who hold the association’s planning designation — CPA Australia Financial Planning Specialist (FPS).

“We already have a very comprehensive set of rules and guidelines. These additional guidelines are more to reflect the dynamic nature of the industry and to meet the needs of those members wishing to specialise,” he says.

CPA Australia is also conducting a study into consumer experiences in relation to self-managed super and is working in conjunction with a research group to put together the project, which is scheduled for completion at the end of July.

Last week, the group released another research study that looked into the saving and debt levels among generation X and Y.

It found that 70 per cent of respondents see saving as something they intend to do in the future, while 73 per cent believe it will be very difficult to save enough to retire comfortably. Almost 50 per cent of generation Y believe home ownership is unattainable.