Sherry takes aim at Costello
Financial planners have done nothing wrong by encouraging clients to invest more in superannuation as a result of the former Liberal Government’s ‘better super’ changes, according to the Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Nick Sherry.
Sherry used an address to the Financial Planning Association national conference on the Gold Coast to criticise the former Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, for suggesting planners may have acted inappropriately with respect to the extra super contributions.
“É Costello has been very vocal on this issue,” he said. “Unfortunately, and I think unfairly, financial planners were directly in is his firing line.”
Sherry claimed Costello’s comments had “basically sought to place blame on planners for advising clients to direct voluntary payments into super at a time when the then Government was directly encouraging exactly that outcome through legislative change and a very expensive advertising campaign”.
“As I said at the time, the financial planning community is not to blame. You responded to a regulatory change, pushed along by incentives and advertising. You acted within the law. I don’t think it fair or accurate to look back and to now try and apportion blame,” the minister said.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
As larger Australian Financial Services licensees continue to expand their reach in an increasingly expensive industry to operate, how do smaller firms ensure they stay relevant and efficient?
HUB24 has added almost 600 advisers in the 2025 financial year as the platform capitalises on opportunities presented in wealth management.
Wealth Architects has acquired a Cairns-based advice practice as it seeks to expand its national advice presence.
While the overall gender wage gap has decreased slightly, the Financy Women’s Index reveals the gap has widened for employees in the financial and insurance services sector.
