Most want Trowbridge IAP above $2000
One of the key elements of the Trowbridge Report recommendations — the Initial Advice Payment (IAP) — would need to rise to as high as $2000 before it gained the support of life/risk advisers.
That is the bottom line of an online survey conducted by Money Management this week which revealed that more than 95 per cent of respondents believed that the $1200 IAP proposed in the Trowbridge Report would not be adequate.
Importantly more than half of respondents described themselves as financial planners and a further one-quarter described themselves as practice principles.
The survey findings come at a time when the major stakeholders in the Trowridge Report have been seeking to establish a basis for on-going negotiations and as the Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg has warned that if a self-regulatory compromised cannot be reached, Government intervention is likely.
Asked what the appropriate level of an IAP would be, more than 93 per cent of respondents nominated the highest amount nominated in the survey - $2000, with some separately suggested that it should be even higher.
However there was much less certainty around the workability of the so-called five-year rule, with nearly 30 per cent of respondents suggesting that this element of the recommendations would be workable.
On the boarder question of whether the Trowbridge recommendations had formed the basis for a consensus self-regulatory approach it seemed unlikely that Assistant Treasurer Frydenberg would get his wish for a speedy resolution of the outstanding issues, with around 80 per cent of respondents indicating they did not believed this was achievable.
Recommended for you
Policy and advocacy specialist Benjamin Marshan has left the Council of Australian Life Insurers after less than a year, having joined in March from the Financial Planning Association of Australia.
The declining volume of risk advisers meant KPMG has found a rising lapse rate for insurance policies arranged by independent financial advisers, particularly in the TPD and death cover space.
The Life Insurance Code of Practice has transferred from the Financial Services Council to the Council of Australian Life Insurers.
The firm has announced it will no longer be writing new life insurance policies in the retail advised and corporate group insurance channels, citing a declining market and risk adviser numbers.
