The proposed superannuation changes are an opportunity for product providers to help financial planners, according to Investment Trends.
Investment Trends research director, Recep Peker, said 80 per cent of survey financial planners said they wanted help from product providers to help them service clients around the super changes.
“These changes that are proposed are a good way for product providers to connect with financial planners and help them out,” he said.
“The help they want is predominately around stuff will help them understand the proposals and that doesn’t tend to be too big of an issue, it’s more collateral or tools that they can use with their clients to explain it. So there is opportunity for the client facing side.”
Peker noted that the largest challenge for financial planners servicing pre-retiree and retiree clients were regulatory uncertainty at 61 per cent, followed by mitigating longevity risk at 27 per cent.
“Regulatory uncertainty is a big issue, by far the largest issue weighing on planners’ minds. One of the reasons behind this is around the TTR [transition-to-retirement] being removed,” he said.
Peker said this was an issue as TTR was a strategy planners recommended to on average over half of pre-retiree clients and the fact that 39 per cent of planners in Australia were retiree focused.
While the Financial Advice Association Australia said it supports a performance testing regime “in principle”, it holds reservations about expanding this scope to retirement products.
In a Senate submission, the Financial Services Council said super funds should be able to nudge members on engaging with their super and has cautioned against default placements.
The Joint Associations Working Group, which counts FSC in its ranks, has issued an urgent warning to the government.
Senator Jane Hume will join the speaker lineup at the inaugural Australian Wealth Management Summit.
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