Planners accused on Age Pension
Financial advisers have encouraged people to believe that the Age Pension might at some stage cease to exist, according to Council on the Ageing (COTA) chief executive, Ian Yates.
Yates has told a hearing of the Senate Economic Committee review of the Government's legislation around the objective of superannuation that doubts about the future of the Age Pension had been an important factor in attitudes towards the importance of superannuation.
"….people feel that there is a basic threat to the pension's existence, something which, I might say, has been encouraged by many financial advisers over the last few decades — that is, they say you must do all sorts of things through them, because the pension will not exist," he said.
"I think that is highly unlikely, but we understand why people feel that threat," Yates said.
The COTA chief executive said that he believed the Government's proposed objective for superannuation as a supplement for the Age Pension, actually served to link the pension and super as part of a package.
"In fact, it assumes the continuation of the pension. I do not see it as a replacement for the pension," he said.
"Indeed, one of the issues is clearly that, if you did away with the pension and just had a super system, the actual cost to government might be more," Yates said.
Recommended for you
It can be extremely hard to realise the gains from financial advice M&A, according to Peloton Partners’ Rob Jones, and more could be gained from firms looking inward at their own practice.
With platforms reporting their quarterly results, there is a clear divide in the adviser markets they are targeting, according to platform specialist Recep Peker, and which would be right for your clients.
The Federal Court has imposed a $10 million penalty on Macquarie Bank for failing to prevent and control unauthorised fee transactions by third parties including financial advisers.
A financial advice firm has seen a weekly decline of 10 advisers, with all moving to a new licensee, while Centrepoint Alliance continues its “growth story”.