Government needs to ‘stop saying’ it’s making advice accessible and act on it

With a raft of new regulations relating to subjects such as information sharing and hawking set to come into effect next month, Eugene Ardino said the government is “walking back things that are pretty obvious and/or unnecessary” while appearing on the latest episode of the ifa Show.

While he noted the recent ASIC levy relief will help the industry, Mr Ardino said changes like the FASEA exam extension and financial document services were simply errors that needed to be corrected.

“Advisers and licensees, while we are in this legislation expansion phase, all we can do is put on more resources to meet those requirements and pass on those costs to consumers,” Mr Ardino said.

“What else are we supposed to do? It’s the government who is saying they’re serious about making advice more accessible. Well, they need to do things. They need to stop saying that and actually do serious things, drastic things to achieve that; otherwise, we just keep going down this path.”

Mr Ardino said that Lifespan, like all advice businesses in Australia, is trying to structure its business within the rules as best as possible, but that will come at a cost to its service.

“If those rules dictate that we can only service people who can afford to pay $5,000, $10,000 a year in fees, then that’s what it is,” he said.

“But the government saying they don’t want it to go down that path — well, they need to do things.”

Listen to the full podcast here.

Mr Ardino is up for his third straight win in the Dealer Group Executive of the Year category at this year’s ifa Excellence Awards, and he is also slated for Industry Thought Leader of the Year.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.