Uncertainty the only certainty for financial services
The Government's Budget superannuation changes are likely to be amended, with some changes also possible to the Life Insurance Framework (LIF) but Australia's key financial planning organisations are hopeful that there will be no impediments to the passage of the Professional and Education Standards Framework.
However both the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) have lamented the continuing uncertainty which will surround elements such as superannuation and the LIF in the context of a hung Parliament or a minority Government.
FPA chief executive, Dante De Gori, said that it was early days but it appeared that a good many issues which had been close to settlement before the calling of the Federal Election were now back in play, particularly superannuation.
"We seem set for another period of uncertainty but it is something that we have become used to," he said.
Discussing the possible make-up of the Senate, De Gori said that he believed that the array of new Senators from minor parties would make for an interesting set of circumstances, but he was hopeful that at the very least they would be prepared to listen to the industry and consider issues on their merits.
Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) chief executive, Brad Fox, agreed that the financial planning industry was faced with another period of uncertainty and said that advisers would need to be patient and wait to see what evolved.
"It is always challenging and there will be a need to deal with what represents another period of disruption for the sector," he said.
The comments of Fox and De Gori have also come amid some suggestions that, notwithstanding the likelihood that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) will be unable to form a majority Government, it may be able to garner enough support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to move for a Royal Commission into the banking and financial services industry.
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