Profession remains hopeful despite ‘legislative fatigue’

While advisers suffered a lot of adversity during the royal commission and ensuing legislation, Iress’ head of customer office, Alexander Klomp, believes positive change was a big part of the outcome.

Speaking at Striver’s Brimstone event in Sydney this week, Klomp said: “I think it was fair to say we, you know, we had the royal commission, which wasn’t a fun time for most of us that are working in the industry. But you know, one of the pleasing things that’s come out of it is really pushed us to become a profession.”

UniSuper’s comprehensive advice manager, Brett Saurine, agreed, noting that despite the significant impacts of the royal commission, it was an important learning experience for the profession.

But like many who have been in the advice profession for a significant period of time, Saurine said he suffers from “legislative fatigue” as a result of the continuous change the profession has been subjected to over the years.

“It is pretty relentless. We’re just about to go through a whole other tranche of legislation, but I think it’s a really good move,” he said.

“This is my third or fourth iteration of changes within the industry. So for me, that’s getting me curious what the future looks like, and what the potential is.”

Saurine also stressed the vital importance of the government’s Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms, which promise to relieve some of the overly rigorous regulation the profession has endured for years.

“The pendulum has probably swung a little bit too far, and that’s added to costs … With the new regulations coming through, the whole idea is to provide the ability to provide more advice to more Australians that are cost effective,” he said.

Klomp agreed, similarly sharing that the profession has been “a bit over-regulated”.

“Hopefully, we’re just starting to see some of the easing to be able to provide more advice to more people,” he said.

Recent research revealed that the level of trust in Australian financial planners has bounced back to its pre-Hayne levels.

Namely, CoreData has shown that while trust in advisers dipped from 5.5 to 3 out of 10 during the royal commission, consumer trust levels have now returned to approximately 5.5.

“Trust in financial planners has recovered after a big bounce this half. It will be interesting to see if the industry will capitalise on the returned love in the coming golden age of advice,” said Andrew Inwood, founder and principal of CoreData.

Last month, research firm Wealth Insights reported that 62 per cent of advisers described current conditions in 2024 as “good” or “very good”. In comparison, this figure was at 55 per cent a decade ago, in 2014.

This is its highest level of positive sentiment towards the profession since 2017, with sentiment declining following the royal commission in 2018 and the subsequent fallout from its findings.