Having an institutionally owned Australian financial services license (AFSL) can comprise everything from the advice clients receive to the product advisers sell, one financial adviser believes.
Owner and principal of Aon Hewitt-backed EZI Protect, Mick Sykes, said he would not like to see advisers going down the path of institutionally owned AFSLs as they are bound their approved product lists (APL).
"Where I stand, Aon is not an institutionally-owned organisation, so that gives us more flexibility to choose who's on our APL," he said.
"But if it's an institutionally owned thing, then maybe that institution's product is always going to be on there.
"It's a little bit like multi nationals buying farms so they can control everything from the milk production through to what goes on the shelf," he said.
But general manager of finance and wealth management at Ausingroup Mark Morcos said there has got to be a framework on what qualifies on the APLs.
"There's got to be a process that you go by in order to get any product on the APL or to get approved by the investment committee," he said.
"It's not just like you can put anything on the APL. There are rules and regulations on what you can and can't put on the APL from an AFSL point of view."
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