The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has published its second interim report on changes to financial advice and definitions and invited industry response.
Financial Services Legislation: Interim Report B related to technical improvements that would simplify corporations and financial services legislation in a form that may be implemented prior to the conclusion of the Inquiry, if accepted by the Australian Government.
Topics covered included technical simplification, simpler law design, enhancing navigability, proposed legislative model and offences and penalties.
However, when it came to financial advice, the ALRC said it was mindful of the Quality of Advice Review and would take its recommendations into account.
Previous comments about advice by the body had included the varying definitions of ‘general’ , ‘personal’ and ‘financial’ advice.
The body said the second report was “most critical” as the level of complexity was only growing which would make it more and more difficult to untangle.
“As significant and frequent amendments to the law continue to be made, the level of complexity will only continue to grow in coming years. Consequently, the sooner reforms can be made to the regulatory architecture, the easier they will be to implement.
“Conversely, the longer that the existing ad hoc legislative design choices remain entrenched, the more difficult, time consuming, and expensive it will become to untangle the complexity that inevitably accretes.”
Submissions would close on 30 November.
