Advice bodies urged to ‘renounce’ LIF support

In a communication to members, AIOFP executive director Peter Johnston said he has written an email – seen by ifa – both to the AFA's Brad Fox and the FPA's new CEO, Dante De Gori, urging them to "publicly renounce" their support for the LIF and start "acting in the best interests" of their members.

"The reform package your organisations jointly endorsed mid-last year is a poor outcome for consumers, the nation's underinsurance dilemma, future Federal welfare liabilities and small business," said the email addressed to Mr Fox and Mr De Gori.

"Due to your actions in conjunction with the [FSC] last June, both former [assistant treasurer Josh] Frydenberg and current [Assistant Treasurer and Small Business] Minister [Kelly] O'Dywer are under the impression these proposed changes have wide spread industry support. As you both should well know by now, this is certainly not the case."

Mr Johnston explained to his members that, with the LIF legislation now before a Senate review committee, the industry has until Monday next week to convince senators that the LIF is "unfair", especially for consumers.

"We started this process on [16 February] when we met with Senator Sam Dastyari to discuss the potential effects on consumers which he and Senator Nick Xenophon are very passionate about," he said.

The Life Insurance Consumer Group (LICG) – which has also been lobbying to have the reforms changed – is appealing to its supporters to lobby the AFA and FPA to make a submission to the senate review committee flagging the concerns they have about the impact of the reforms on consumers.

"The LICG is doing everything possible on your behalf to get some balance back into the debate, expose the sham pushed by the big institutions, strive for the advisers who really look after their customers and advocate strongly for some actual benefits for consumers," an email from the group said.

In mid-February, Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer introduced legislation into parliament which would bring into effect the LIF.