When all else fails, can advisers rely on ASIC?
Outsider knows that there a certain number of financial advisers who like nothing better than sticking the boot into the Financial Planning Association and the Association of Financial Advisers over their shortcomings – real or otherwise.
Outsider is also never one to walk past the opportunity of a free kick but he is currently urging a modicum of sympathy be directed towards the FPA’s chief executive, Dante De Gori, and the AFA chief executive, Phil Kewin, because they have clearly become victims of the “Canberra bubble”.
There was De Gori, on the Friday before Parliament was due to resume, happily quoting the Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology, Senator Jane Hume’s assurance that the legislation to extend the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) exam timetable would be passed by the Senate only to change his tune by midday Tuesday.
Thereafter, De Gori and Kewin were forced to stand on the sidelines watching as first the Government blamed the Opposition and then the Opposition blamed the Government for not dealing with the FASEA exam extension bill.
The blame, as it usually does in Canberra, could be apportioned to both sides – to the Opposition for wanting to amend an obscure element of the omnibus bill and to the Government for trying to avoid more frequent sittings of the Parliament through the COVID-19 and winter period.
Outsider knew things were becoming desperate when it was suggested that the Australian Securities and Investment Commission may yet come to the rescue of financial planners with a class order – something considered about as likely as porcine flight.
AUTHOR
The Outsider
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