Govt will consider Ripoll with Cooper

The Australian financial services industry will have to await the outcome of the Cooper Review into superannuation before it knows precisely how the Government will act on the broad recommendations flowing from the Ripoll Inquiry.

The Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, has made clear the Ripoll recommendations will now be viewed in the context of what emerges from the Cooper Review.

Welcoming the delivery of the Ripoll recommendations, Bowen said the Government would respond to the committee’s report in conjunction with the Cooper Review, which was also looking at commissions and fee structures in superannuation.

He reiterated his statement to last week’s Financial Planning Association conference where he said any regulatory changes by the Government would be guided by the following two key principles:

• The financial advice that people get must be in their best interests — distortions to remuneration, which misalign the best interests of the client and the adviser, should be minimised.

• In minimising these distortions, we need to ensure that we don't put financial advice out of reach of those who would benefit from it.

“We'll be working through the recommendations of the Ripoll Inquiry and will judge its recommendations against those two policy principles, to help ensure that financial advice is in the best interests of the client, while keeping this advice within the reach of those who may need it most,” the minister said.

Bowen said it was worth noting that the Ripoll Inquiry’s report carried bipartisan support.