Life insurer welcomes Parliament consensus on FASEA

MetLife chief executive Richard Nunn said the passage of the bill through both houses of Parliament earlier on Wednesday showed that political parties had taken on adviser concerns.

“MetLife welcomes the news that [federal] parliamentarians have listened to the adviser community about the challenges in meeting these timeframes,” Mr Nunn said. 

“These challenges were heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are also pleased that these changes received bipartisan support.”

The insurer said it was running seminars and webinars to help advisers sitting the FASEA exam.

MetLife also welcomed clarifications contained in the omnibus bill that addressed technical issues in the government’s Protecting Your Super reforms, which remove insurance for low-balance, inactive super accounts. The amendments related to specifics around how an inactive account was defined.

The passage of the bill ended a protracted period of parliamentary deadlock around the legislation, which had had amendments added first by Labor and then the Centre Alliance that the government would not support.

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick withdrew his amendment relating to grandfathered large proprietary companies on Wednesday morning, allowing the bill to finally pass through both houses of Parliament.