The Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO) legislation, as detailed in ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 274 Product Design and Distribution Obligations, comes into effect on 5 October 2021. This article, proudly sponsored by GSFM, examines how ethics (and FASEA’s Code of Ethics) intersect with DDO obligations. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Design and Distribution Obligations and Product intervention Powers) Act 2019 (Cth) introduced the DDO to Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001. [...]

Ethical values provide a moral compass by which people live their lives and make decisions. This article, sponsored by GSFM, investigates the ways financial advice practices can support ethical behaviour to provide financial advice to clients that is always in their best interests. Since 1994, the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI) has conducted a longitudinal, cross-sectional study of workplace conduct from the employee’s perspective. This research consistently demonstrates that the [...]

Since its introduction to the Australian market over 20 years ago, trauma (aka crisis or critical illness) cover has become an important part of the life insurance product universe. Designed to pay a lump sum in the event that the life insured suffers a traumatic illness or injury, the trauma cover claim rate is second only to income protection, reflecting a likelihood of a claimable event that is around 3 [...]

Introduction The multibillion-dollar losses experienced by individual Disability Income Insurance (IDII) contracts over the last few years, and the resultant ‘sticker shock’ level of premium increases needed to shore up IDII books, became one of the largest sustainability threats faced by the life insurance sector in recent memory. The prudential regulator, APRA, was left with little choice but to intervene in the sector, and in late 2019 they wrote to [...]