Financial reform should go ahead under Gillard

With the issue of the nation's Government seemingly settled for now, Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms and Cooper Review recommendations will likely go ahead en masse, according to two industry leaders.

Speaking at a discussion session at yesterday’s Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) conference, Geoff Lloyd, group executive, private wealth at Perpetual, said the question now was no longer about what, but about how.

“FoFA will continue and likely be accelerated,” he said.

“We've gone through the consultation process. It's time to address the principles that have come out of that and look at the components that meet those principles. We need to move the value of advice discussion to the front of the agenda rather than the method of payment.”

He said that with financial services now the largest contributor to the nation’s GDP by industry it is disappointing that the sector doesn’t have a representative seat in cabinet. This will likely mean proposed changes will continue as a two-step process, with changes having to go through the new Minister for Financial Services and then the treasury, which could slow down the overall process.

Speaking at the same discussion session, Mercer’s member services and advice leader Jo-Anne Bloch said that the majority of the Cooper Review recommendations will likely go through “lock, stock and barrel,” with potentially a few tweaks around the edges.

There still needed to be some debate around MySuper, and the new Government was yet to reaffirm it’s commitment to an increase in the superannuation guarantee to 12 per cent, but the majority of other recommendations such as SuperStream would likely be implemented as is, she said.