Jones kicks off another series of roundtables on QAR

ifa has learnt from multiple sources that Treasury is hosting a series of roundtables, beginning today, with stakeholders, including representatives of institutions and adviser groups, to work through the legislative and technical details of the government’s financial advice reform package.

The first series is expected to address the new class of advisers, best interests duty, statements of advice, and superannuation nudges.

The roundtables are considered a standard procedure for Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones to gather additional information before turning his focus on developing exposure drafts.

Once these exposure drafts are developed, advisers will be invited to share their input as part of a wider consultation process.

Last year, the minister insisted that all Quality of Advice Review (QAR)-related legislation would be out for consultation in early 2024, however, with February already in its second half and additional roundtables expected in the coming weeks, it appears increasingly unlikely that Mr Jones will meet his deadline.

The minister’s last QAR-related announcement took place in December last year, when he delivered the government’s final thoughts on the multiple stages of its QAR response.

At the time, he announced that not only does the government want to see superannuation funds expand their advisory powers, it also supports the creation of a new class of financial advice providers – “qualified advisers”.

Advisers were expectedly outraged with the proposal to grant workers of institutions, including banks and insurers, the title “qualified adviser”, especially since they might only have a few weeks of education and a diploma.

Beyond this announcement, the minister also said the government intends to replace statements of advice with an advice record that provides clients with “helpful information in plain English”, alongside a number of other tweaks that could somewhat ease the regulatory burden on advisers.