Senator Jane Hume has called on the Labor Party to enable the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) extension to return to business after a ruling yesterday on listed investment companies.
The Treasury announced the ban on conflicted remuneration to LICs would be extended following a consultation which began in January.
The discussion on LICs had been part of an omnibus bill which included the FASEA education extension.
Responding to the news on Twitter, Hume, who is Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology, said financial advisers needed certainty in these turbulent times.
"Labor must now enable the Bill for FASEA education extension to return to non-controversial business, as it was listed before last Monday. At times like this people need advice and financial advisers need certainty.
“Labor conflated two unrelated issues, using the FASEA Bill as a cynical political ploy at the expense of the industry and Australians who need essential financial advice.
“[Shadow Minister for Financial Services] Stephen Jones, stop playing games and allow the Bill to pass as non-controversial business in the next sitting.”
Jones later tweeted saying: “Abbott and Corman created a loophole that allowed commissions to be paid to flow shares in investment companies propped up by junk bonds. Mum and Dad investors lost millions of dollars. I’m pleased Josh Frydenberg has acted to close the loophole.”
Comments
We can now see the pure politics of this. They could get the stamping commissions for lic's dealt with but not FASEA extension. Advisers are being let down primarily by our professional associations and then by politicians. We need new candidates at next professional association votes who have enough push to move management to greater action, and we need to make political noise, it's the only thing that works. If find it extraordinary that if you are voted onto the Board of the FPA you are then gagged from media comment on linkedin etc. Freedom of speech? Dictatorships? And we have a guy posting lego pictures on linkedin to show how busy he is? Wow. No wonder they don't take us seriously.
Hume now states that financial advisers need certainty.
What about the significant uncertainty Minister Hume of the unworkable FASEA Code of Ethics and the significant and restrictive impacts this will have on anyone in this profession.
Minister Hume....you need to be brave and have courage to clearly understand the issues and then act to have this process re-evaluated and re-assessed.
There are glaring and dangerous issues in the way some of the code has been structured and just because it has been done, does not mean the product is right.
If you are truly concerned with the ability of financial advisers to move forward in a certain and professional world, then you also need to allow for the significant overreach of duplicated red tape and compliance costs that will eventually drive the cost of advice through the sky.
The people who need financial advisers will no longer be able to afford advice and this is a tragedy because the advice that is delivered on a weekly basis to so many Australians allows them to make informed decisions about their current financial position, their financial future and their financial protection.
Financial Advisers are very much educators and teachers on a daily basis, transferring knowledge of complex principles and strategies into understandable chunks of information so people can understand the impact and/or consequences of acting or not acting on advice.
Most unfortunately, it is what advisers do every day with their clients on a personal and caring level that is rarely ever acknowledged and yet it is this commitment that clients value.
So, Minister Hume, what Financial Advisers need from your Govt is some acknowledgement and respect, but more than that, they need some relief from the relentless persecution and cost so small business can survive and prosper and continue to deliver the level of service and advice to Australians that is so desperately needed.
The mountainous compliance regime and the repetitive duplication of documentation does not necessarily lead to an enhanced consumer outcome.
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