A tiered approach still needs best practice to sit on top of it all.
Earlier today, I was able to represent Iress in Canberra and attend an announcement at Parliament House, where Minister Stephen Jones released the Government’s final response to the Quality of Advice Review.
I’ve been involved in the Review in one way or another over the past few years, and learned that the political process always requires patience. The thing you believe in may not be the same as what other people believe in, and the best policy comes from the combination of good ideas and good execution – not that different to how product development works. Or most things in business life, really.
The policy version, though, has a unique set of constituents to balance.
After spending a big chunk of my career focused on retirement policy and being involved in retirement products, it was only a matter of time before I came back to advice and advice policy. The QAR has taken many turns, but at heart it was always about improving the accessibility and affordability of advice – by getting advisers back to being able to do their jobs, with less red tape, less drama and less compliance intervention.
For me, all of the ideas worth following in investment and super led me back to advice, which in turn led me to Iress – and, more specifically, to Xplan, where I am now chief product and operations officer for Iress Wealth.
So, almost two years later, today feels like a win – for consumers and the people that genuinely care about their financial wellbeing.
I know many advisers may be concerned by the idea that under these reforms, others get to give advice, too. But I really want to reiterate that that’s not what I’m hearing – not from speaking to the policy makers today, and not from hearing the Minister’s speech. Professional advice given by financial advisers will always reign supreme.
And while the expansion of advice into new channels may have gotten all the headlines, I’m particularly heartened by the announcement that statements of advice will be replaced in favour of principles-based advice records. We know just how much time SOA generation adds to the advice process, and how little value the end document often delivers for the end consumer. My team is eagerly awaiting the full legislation to be ready to make the necessary changes within Xplan and support you to benefit from the efficiency gains this will deliver.
Today’s announcement gives us a path, and there is so much more work to do to make advice easier to provide to more Australians. Making advice efficient is central to that. And I’m really glad that the Government agrees.
Iress Contributor
