AFA CEO praises Levy’s ‘revolutionary’ ideas, expects QAR implementation to ‘take time’

Speaking on a recent episode of the AFA Gen Next Podcast, Phil Anderson, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), commended the lead of the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) and her thorough approach to the job.

“I was incredibly impressed with the extent of the engagement and consultation. I personally had about 10 meetings with Michelle during the course of the year,” Mr Anderson said.

“What was really important was that her and her team introduced revolutionary ideas and they were brave. They didn’t leave anything in the locker, they called [it] as it was and they came out with some major recommendations,” the CEO opined.

Mr Anderson explained that while the AFA hasn’t seen the final report, “we anticipate that what was in that proposals paper made it through”.

Noting that “we’ve still got some vigorous debate to go through”, Mr Anderson said he is “quite optimistic” about the review.

“They [the government] could choose to put it all through or choose to cherry-pick from it. We hope they are as brave as Michelle has been, and that we get really fundamental change as a result,” the CEO said.

Mr Anderson expects the government’s response could be made public by April. This, he said, will likely be followed by multiple consultations.

Noting that “these things take time”, Mr Anderson raised the possibility that some legislation may be tabled in Parliament by the end of the year.

“One of the things we need to be conscious of is that there are bottlenecks in this process and the government needs their drafters to have the time to focus on these things, so it doesn’t happen overnight.

“We have to be patient,” Mr Anderson said, adding that the current regulatory regime is likely to remain for the remainder of 2023.

Overall, he is optimistic about the future and the industry’s ability to turn things around.

He said, “2023 will be a year where we do lots of talking about fixing the problems, but we might not actually see those changes implemented. But it gives us positivity and room to be optimistic about the future.”

“If we contrast the momentum and the environment we operate in now, it is very different from what it was 24 months back,” Mr Anderson noted.

“The challenge is to take advantage of that new environment, that new momentum, and make the changes that we need to make.”