Jo-Anne Bloch
The Financial Planning Association has called for changes to be made to the Financial Services Reform Act (FSR) to ease the burden of compliance on financial planners and make professional financial planning advice more accessible.
This is in response to Federal Treasurer Peter Costello’s call to the superannuation industry to simplify the process of amalgamating the superannuation balances of employees, made last week at the CEDA Conference.
The FPA challenged the Government to go one step further by making it easier for financial planners to provide advice to people who want to consolidate their super.
“FPA members are telling us that the compliance burden of providing advice on super consolidation is putting professional advice outside the reach of many Australians,” said FPA chief executive officer Jo-Anne Bloch.
The FPA would like to see the length and complexity of Statements of Advice reduced, and has called for greater transparency and clarity in the operation and costs of all superannuation funds to make it easier to compare the merits of particular funds.
The FPA felt such changes would ease the burden of compliance on financial planners without compromising the overriding need to protect consumers.
Bloch said the FPA supported the Government’s efforts to simplify the super system but felt people needed to be encouraged to seek professional financial planning advice to maximise their super investment returns.
“Good advice can help to maximise investment returns, protect against loss of insurance cover, and work through taxation and other issues — all in the context of the individual’s personal needs and financial goals.
“We welcome the Government’s continued work on refinements of the FSR regime and look forward to the implementation of further changes later this year,” Bloch said.
