In response to the Trowbridge report financial adviser group Synchron has criticised recommendations to limit adviser remuneration.
The report recommended that there should be a limit to adviser remuneration to an amount that does not cover the cost of providing insurance advice.
“The commercial reality is that if the numbers don’t stack up, any business of any size is out of business,” Synchron director, Don Trapnell, said.
“If we put small financial advice businesses out of business that’s bad news for consumers, it’s bad news for advisers and ultimately it’s bad news for Australia.”
Trapnell announced that he and Synchron independent chair, Michael Harrison, would head to the UK next week to study the effects of the UK’s Retail Distribution Review (RDR).
“We decided some time ago to go on a fact-finding mission to the UK to observe the effects of the RDR on the advice profession, how UK legislation and/or regulation has changed as a result and whether there are lessons Australia could learn from the experience,” he said.
“The question we will be trying to answer is this — if the UK has been through a similar experience, why has it resulted, or conversely not resulted, in the implementation of recommendations similar to those contained in the Trowbridge report and how has that affected the profession as a whole.”
