Industry body launches petition to delay DDO

The Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals has launched a petition to delay the implementation of DDO and consent forms legislation until 1 July 2022. The body is also seeking the appointment of an independent committee, post-federal election, to reform the compliance regime with the aim to cut costs.

The petition, which has received approval from the Standing Committee on Petitions, is now live.

Noting the reasons behind this step, the AIOFP flagged the numerous government-appointed changes spanning 12 years, many of which, it said, have produced unintended and poor consequences for consumers and the industry in general.

“It should be noted that advisers have no choice but to pass the compliance costs back to their clients. This process is the major contributing factor to the escalation of advice costs where it has risen from $1,000 in 2008–09 to $6,000 today for a consumer to get advice,” the AIOFP said.

“The latest consent forms and DDO legislation have been introduced during the worst of COVID where implementation confusion is widespread among product providers, regulators, advisers, and expensive for consumers. This has been well documented in recent times.”

According to AIOFP executive director Peter Johnston, the time has come for advisers to unite to “protect ourselves from attacks” from “all sides of politics”.

“The ball is now in your court to take out your past displeasures of politicians threatening jobs, careers and businesses — we can now return the compliment with some intimidation of our own,” Mr Johnston explained in an email to advisers. 

ASIC released an additional information sheet on the DDO last Friday.