Iress Contributor
Advisely PartnerYesterday was a big day for our profession, and I was also at the briefing in Canberra. The confirmation of the removal of the BID safe harbour and rationalisation of advice documents was good news, although the detail is still relatively limited. The big news from yesterday was further information on the plans to introduce a new category of financial adviser. This isn't new, as Michelle Levy first proposed it in August last year. The issue has always been about carefully limiting this advice to types of advice that are simple and ensuring that the education standard that applies is adequately high; much higher than RG146. What was news yesterday was that the Government would make these changes applicable to super funds, life insurers and banks at the same time (previously they were starting with super funds), and the reference to this term "Qualified Adviser". That has rightly received a lot of pushback. They are clearly not going to be anywhere near as qualified as fully qualified advisers. We can't have Qualified Advisers and Professional Advisers, or Partially Qualified Advisers and Fully Qualified Advisers. This needs to make sense to clients and ultimately be very clear on what the difference is. Another term needs to be found.
Iress ContributorI did see you there up front Phil! And yes. I thought Aleks's questioning on definitions and labelling and "hairdressers" definitely hit the mark! Hopefully regardless of what we call it (and I hope it improves), the real guardrails are made clear.
