SOA relief for planners imminent

Relief from burdensome Statement of Advice (SOA) requirements for planners who provide direct equity advice could be imminent, with the Financial Planning Association (FPA) confident of a resolution after holding further talks with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The prospect of an exemption appeared lost last month after an FPA submission to the regulator seeking class order relief for planners to put them on par with stockbrokers was rejected, but the latest talks have left the association hopeful of a positive outcome.

Stockbrokers are regulated by the Australian Stock Exchange under different legislation and have a conditional exemption from the need to provide an SOA when providing further market related share advice in time critical situations.

FPA policy manager Joan Simpson and board member Corrina Dieters have been in discussions with ASIC on the matter.

“We know that ASIC is talking to Treasury about the prospect of looking at the legislation to see if it can be made more amenable for financial planners,” Simpson told Money Management.

Simpson said the FPA, which this week unveiled a ‘how to’ guide on SOAs in response to concerns about complexity from members, was confident the regulator was taking their petition seriously, but as yet had not indicated the details of how the issue would be resolved.

“We haven’t yet heard the nitty gritty details of whether Statements of Additional Advice will be able to refer to previous SOAAs, so advisers won’t have to write an SOA every time, you’ll be able to refer to previous ones,” Simpson said.