Report in, countdown begins as FPA urges Jones to act fast

Michelle Levy has handed down her final report of the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) to the government, triggering a countdown to Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones’ response.

In a statement this week, the chief executive of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) said the group “eagerly awaits” the findings by the Financial Services Minister and urged him to move quickly to reduce the regulatory burden advisers are under.

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“The review is a critical opportunity to reduce the cost of providing advice in Australia and improve the ability of Australians to get access to high-quality professional financial advice,” said Sarah Abood.

She noted that the FPA’s members were encouraged by Michelle Levy’s recommendations made in the proposal paper earlier this year, including a more principles-based approach to regulating the provision of financial advice.

“The FPA believes the regulatory costs of providing personal advice must come down, to help improve the affordability of advice for consumers and ensure there is a level playing field for the regulatory requirements and standards imposed on advice providers,” Ms Abood said.

“Further, the regulatory environment should facilitate the provision of simple personal financial advice to clients in an affordable manner by financial planners and financial planning practices, to meet consumer demand.”

As such, the FPA said new regulatory requirements must build consumer trust in the different types of advice services and benefits through high standards, appropriate education and training, effective requirements and accountability, and transparent regulation of the provider, applied consistently across the financial services sector.

Moreover, the group wants to see a regulatory environment that reduces input costs into the provision of financial advice, facilitates an increase in financial advice providers, ensures active accountability for all financial advice providers, maintains consistent consumer protections, and is fair and equitable.

Moreover, Ms Abood explained that the impact on competition in the financial advice market must be a key consideration when examining the current legal obligations and making recommendations for regulatory change, and must not provide a structural competitive advantage to one type of provider over another.

“Importantly, only ‘relevant providers’ who meet the professional standards should be legally permitted to use the terms financial planner and financial adviser and like terms,” she concluded.