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FPA calls on industry funds for united approach
Jo-Anne Bloch
The chief executive of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), Jo-Anne Bloch, used an address to the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds (CMSF) on the Gold Coast this week to call for a united approach between planners and industry funds on the delivery of quality advice to consumers.
Speaking just days after Industry Funds spokesman Garry Weaven used the conference to reinforce his calls for legislation imposing an obligation on planners to provide advice in the best interests of clients, Bloch said it was time to recognise how heavily regulated the financial advice industry was.
“Recognising that the advice industry is heavily regulated, shouldn’t we embrace the fact that there are different ways to deliver advice,” she said. “As long as there is tough regulation and as along as there is full disclosure and transparency, consumers should be able to choose whether they need advice, whether they want advice relating to a product only, or whether they want more complex advice, which might include a whole lot more than super.”
Bloch said a heavily regulated model should be capable of overcoming arguments about fees and commissions, and the real debate should now be about the delivery of advice across the industry to those who need and want it.
The chief executive of the Investment and Financial Services Association, Richard Gilbert, told CMSF delegates that Australia was confronting a supply crisis in terms of delivering advice.
“What we have in Australia is a surging demand for advice which is outpacing supply,” he said.
Like Bloch, Gilbert said the industry at large and the regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, needed to collaborate quickly to come up with solutions that would boost both adviser numbers and output.
“But we have continual calls to increase compliance and actually raise the quality bar,” he said. “If these calls are heeded, the shortage will become even more apparent.”
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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