Top 10 Most Influential: Louise Sylvan

Thereis no doubt the Australian Consumers’ Association/Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ACA/ASIC) 2003 shadow shopping survey had a dramatic impact on the financial services industry.

For that reason, the then head of the ACA, Louise Sylvan, who was the public spokesperson on the report, made it toMoney Management’sTop 10 Most Influential list.

One member of the panel championed the survey and Sylvan’s role in its delivery to the industry, arguing that the financial services community “had been sitting on the issue of quality of advice for too long” and had done next to nothing about improving it.

“The issue had to blow up at some time,” the panellist says, “and Sylvan had the guts to say something about it.”

However, other panel members question the timing of the report, which coincided with poor returns and low investor confidence.

“Even if planners were doing the right things by their clients, it was an unfortunate time to deliver a report like that.”

It was a view supported by another member of the panel who says: “It scared clients, resulting in a whole lot of regulations that get in the way of providng clear advice.”

Sylvan herself reiterates statements she made upon the release of the report.

“The information on the financial planning industry critically pointed to very serious structural problems — despite denials at the time,” she says. “And the information has been taken very seriously in terms of the reforms we are seeing now.”

Media attention played, she agrees, a critical role in the release of the report. “It was important that we worked jointly with the regulator and that we had a huge media presence so that the message was conveyed to the public.”