Associations called to release proposals on insurance reforms

Executive director of the AIOFP Peter Johnston has been very vocal since the release of the reforms and has questioned why the associations will not release their proposals to the Assistant Treasurer.

"We feel it is fair and reasonable that the three associations who constructed the Proposal for the Minister immediately release it to the advice community," Mr Johnston said.

"If the advisers' views and concerns were seriously taken into account why was it not done from the outset? We can only assume that the Proposal was heavily weighted in the institutions' favour and the advisers were disadvantaged.

"Associations should be transparent with their members at all times otherwise it undermines their credibility," he said.

FPA chief executive Mark Rantall said, however, that the association did consult its members and publicly made its position on the life insurance industry known.

The FPA's 'life insurance blueprint', which it released in May 2015 for consultation with its members, rejected a level commission structure and claimed the proposals of the FSI would "only serve to benefit life insurance providers".

AFA chief executive Brad Fox had also previously responded to Mr Johnston's comments, stating it is "very easy to criticise the [associations] for being involved in the process".

"The fact that the AFA and the FPA could come up with a joint, shared, identical blueprint that was taken to the FSC and to [Mr Frydenberg] helped enormously in getting that final outcome," he said.

"Things were considerably worse before that, so us coming together, united, was a very beneficial part of this process."