Michelle Levy backed to identify advice sector's 'pain points' in Quality of Advice Review

FINSIA has backed the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) reviewer and Allens partner Michelle Levy to provide recommendations to Treasury that will help increase access to financial advice in Australia.

On the latest episode of the ifa Show podcast, FINSIA CEO and managing director, Yasser El-Ansary, threw his support behind Ms Levy saying he is optimistic about the changes the QAR could bring.

"[Ms Levy] will already have a very good idea of where the pain points are, where the challenges are and where the opportunities are for our future," Mr El-Ansary said.

"I think the expectation is certainly there that Michelle will run a very fine-tooth comb over the effectiveness and efficiency of a policy and regulatory environment that sits there at the moment. And again, she will have a starting knowledge of all of that from the role that she's played in the industry for some time now."

Mr El-Ansary added that the consistent notion shared by a majority of the QAR submissions — that the increased regulatory burden must be addressed — will be taken into serious consideration.

"... there is far too much complexity in this space and that efforts to eliminate some of the complexity or reduce the complexity where that's possible must be a priority," he said.

On the same episode, Mr El-Ansary discussed FINSIA's QAR submission to Treasury which recommended the review and Ms Levy "explored the features of the coregulatory model that currently exists within the accounting profession… to determine if the government believes such a model may serve as a valuable guide for the evolution of the regulatory framework in respect of financial advisers in Australia".

"Everything from the way in which they must hold certain levels of professional indemnity insurance to ensure that their clients are protected in the event of some misadventure in that particular area, the way in which public practitioners who hold a certificate in the accounting profession must complete a certain volume of continuing professional development on a periodic basis," he explained.

"You can think about how that relates in the accounting profession very much to the need to keep abreast of regulatory change, policy change, changes to taxation law… [the accounting model] might serve as a really useful catalyst for at least some thinking to be done by Michelle Levy and the team around whether or not that model might, in fact, have a place in the context of financial advice."

The QAR will be provided to government by 16 December this year.

Listen to the full podcast with Mr El-Ansary here.

READ MORE: Michelle Levy flags concerns about accountants’ advice proposal

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.