Fee disclosure leaves clients cold

Clients are more likely to ask "why" than say "thankyou" when they receive fee disclosure statement documentation, according to Matrix Planning Solutions chief executive Rick Di Cristoforo.

With a number of dealer groups now having entered their third cycle of compliance with the fee disclosure regime which evolved out of the former Government's Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) changes, industry spokesmen have claimed client reactions have been mostly indifferent or negative.

Commenting on her company's experience with the new regime, Mercer Financial Advice leader Jo-Anne Bloch said the reaction from clients had been mixed but generally subdued, with many querying why they were receiving the material.

"We went to a great deal of time, effort and expense to put the new fee disclosure statement regime in place — but the feedback from clients has been pretty indifferent," she said.

Bloch said that, in some instances, clients had asked whether Mercer could differentiate between communications which needed to be acted upon and those which were being sent for compliance reasons.

Di Cristoforo echoed Bloch's experience of the new regime at Mercer, saying many Matrix clients had seemed genuinely confused about why they were receiving the fee disclosure material.

Another dealer group executive told Money Management that there had been instances of clients treating the fee disclosure documentation as an invoice and actually seeking to pay the bill.

"We've actually seen amounts turn up in our accounts and, of course, that creates its own set of challenges," he said.

Both Bloch and Di Cristoforo said that notwithstanding the level of investment which had been made in ensuring compliance with the new regime, they were hopeful the newly-elected Government would act to rectify the issues around the fee disclosure statement regime.

Both the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) listed addressing the issues around the fee disclosure statement regime high on their agenda of things to be addressed by the newly-elected Abbott Government.

As Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Opposition spokesman on Financial Services in the last parliamentary term, Senator Mathias Cormann undertook to refine the fee disclosure regime rather than remove it.

In a specific undertaking issued last year, Cormann referenced "the simplification and streamlining of the additional annual fee disclosure requirements".