FPA accuses ISN of killing planner competition

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has directly accused the Industry Super Network (ISN) of self-interestedly seeking to shut down competition from financial planners.

At the same time, the FPA has called for the ISN’s Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) involvement to be discounted as politically motivated.

In a direct hit at recent advertising paid for by the ISN, FPA chief executive Mark Rantall (pictured) has described the advertisements as “fear mongering”.

“We know that it [the ISN] will stop at nothing to further its self-interested attempts to shut down competition, kill off financial planning services other than its own and extract maximum political advantage,” he said.

Rantall’s statement represents one of the strongest issued by the FPA during the current debate about the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) changes, and pointed to the fact that the ISN’s “fear campaign” had been launched amid the FOFA process.

He said the ISN needed to come clean about its own agenda, “which is the elimination of competition and destruction of sound financial advice and financial security for Australian”.

At the same time, Rantall called on the ISN “to come clean with its private ‘collateral damage’ strategy in relation to killing off high quality financial planners delivering much-needed financial outcomes to their clients and communities every day around this nation”.

“Any submission made to the FOFA reform process by ISN must be discredited and seen for what it is: politically motivated self-interest with scant regard for working Australians,” he said.