A “hard-headed discussion” is needed about the possibilities of vertically-integrated advice, according to shadow minister for financial services, Stephen Jones.
Speaking at the AIA Adviser Summit, Jones was asked by the moderator at what a Labor government would focus on its first 100 days if it was elected in May.
“We need to have a hard-headed discussion about the benefits and limitations of vertically-integrated advice because a lot of funds have been saying the answer lies with them and that [the government] should just open up the rules around intra-fund advice and fill the gaps.
“I’ve got a high level of discomfort around that, given everything we have seen with some of the conflicts that exist in that area in the past.”
A second priority, he said, would be to rectify problems caused by the education requirements under the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) and to formalise the experience pathway which was proposed at the end of 2021.
“I think the problem we had with FASEA model is trying to squeeze everyone through the same funnel and testing and educating people on things that are not relevant to the job they have been doing for the past 10 or 20 years, that seems to be an enormous waste of public resources.
“We need to have a conversation and actually see it as a high priority, something we should be able to start actioning immediately after the next election if we are successful.”
Concluding, Jones said Labor would try to avoid making radical changes and focus on fixing previous issues which would allow advisers to better do their job.
“There’s a fair bit of background anxiety in the community around all these things that are going on. We want to ensure advisers can spend their time on the things they are best at and that is providing advice to customers.
“We are not going to chuck everything in the air and change everything, we want to work in a deliberate way with the profession and fix those things that advisers have been complaining about for some time. We’re up to the job.”
