AMA: I'm Phil Anderson, GM Policy, Advocacy & Standards at FAAA, Ask Me Anything!

The FAAA has supported the idea of a new class of advisers from the outset of consultation on this, however subject to some very important pre-conditions. We certainly do not support the ‘qualified adviser’ term, which the Minister has previously committed to us will change. Otherwise, we want to ensure that the scope of QAs is limited to simple advice and the education standard is much higher. We are also looking for a level playing field between QAs and fully qualified advisers, which is important. That would need to address whether financial advice practices are allowed to appoint them and charge for the services that they provide.

This is a very important issue, which we will be closely tracking. We will not provide our support to this proposal until we are certain that our concerns have been addressed.