ASIC reveals more details of scaled advice consultation

Speaking in a panel session at the FSC's virtual Future of Advice Summit on Tuesday, ASIC commissioner Danielle Press said the regulator's upcoming scaled advice consultation would not attempt to give specific definitions around terms such as 'scaled' or 'limited' advice, but would ask industry for feedback on the current regulatory hurdles around giving such advice.

"The paper we are looking to release is around what is getting in the way of giving good scaled advice," Ms Press said.

"I think there’s lots of different words for it, but it’s about what are the barriers to providing scaled advice. It's not about putting hard lines in, because hard lines aren’t necessarily helpful."

Ms Press said removing barriers to the delivery of scaled advice was a priority for the regulator given increasing consumer demand for specific, low-cost advice around particular financial issues.

"It’s about saying what is it in our guidance that the industry thinks is stopping them giving limited advice, because we hear all the time that the regulator doesn’t like scaled advice, but our position is that scaled advice is what most customers want," she said.

"So we want to know what it is that we can do differently, how do we better approach the guidance we are giving, how can we simplify the message we’re giving, as opposed to redefining advice boundaries."

Ms Press cautioned that some of the improvements that needed to be made to facilitate the delivery of scaled advice may be the responsibility of government rather than ASIC.

"When we do this consultation we will get a lot of feedback, and some will be regulatory and some will be legislative," she said.

"There is a confusion about what levers we can and can’t pull. This is not about finding legislative fixes, it’s finding what is in the control of ASIC – although having said that, we will be sharing that information with Treasury so they can share it with government as they see fit."