Scaled advice is the future: ASIC

Addressing the recent ASFA virtual conference, ASIC commissioner Danielle Press was asked what she would like the industry to look like at the end of the current period of structural and regulatory change.

“I’m a believer in advice – good advice at the right point in life provides consumers a better outcome, so I would like to see the industry thriving,” Ms Press said. 

“Super funds play an important role in that in an intra-fund piece but also as people shift from accumulation into retirement. 

“I think I’d like to see a point where we’re not arguing about the professionalisation of this group anymore, where people are using their professional judgement and we’re providing good quality advice – probably more episodic than necessarily the long tail, although some people will want the long tail.”

The comments come following ASIC’s recent industry consultation around the barriers to affordable advice, with the regulator having urged more licensees to offer scaled advice following research that the majority of consumers wanted to receive advice in episodic form.

Ms Press said she believed advice had an important role to play in helping consumers “control the chaos” of their financial lives.

“I’d like to see an ability for our members in super funds and consumers generally having a way to see through the chaos and be confident in their outcomes from their advisers,” she said.

Ms Press added that she would like to see super funds improve the clarity of their communication to members, particularly around matters that could be perceived as giving advice – such as communications around the Protecting Your Super reforms, which had been flagged by ASIC in a 2020 review as containing “unbalanced messages” to members about the reforms' potential impacts.

“There were good tips in our Protecting Your Super statements around how you communicate that fair and balanced approach to changes coming through and decisions consumers need to make without breaching that general versus personal advice framework – that’s a tricky one that trustees need to think hard about,” she said.