Dante De Gori
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) supports the intent of the proposed ASIC regulatory guidance outlined in CP333, but the FPA wants to see measures extended beyond people employed or authorised to provide personal advice by AFSLs to those who provide general advice, those with the responsibility or ability to influence the advice process and management and directors.
Dante De Gori CFP®, CEO of the FPA, said: “The FPA has been a strong advocate for the reference checking protocol for many years. We have offered a reference checking service for over 10 years, assisting and supporting the introduction of the ABA reference checking protocol which had preceded these current reforms.
“However the FPA is still concerned that unprofessional and unethical participants in the financial planning profession can continue to influence detrimental consumer outcomes by being allowed to move into management roles without appropriate and mandatory reference checks being conducted. For this reason we continue to recommend that ASIC extend the law to directors, management and responsible managers, and not just advice providers.
“Additionally the FPA has been a strong supporter of the central referee register maintained by the ABA and is confused as to why ASIC would not just create a central register. The proposed process is laborious because it requires the new licensee to manually search through multiple web pages as part of the reference checking process. It’s an inefficient regulation of a critical consumer protection policy,” added Mr De Gori.
Other recommendations made by the FPA include:
- Protection for financial planners with the means to raise a complaint to ASIC if the licensee provides false information or describes unclaimable behaviours;
- A single register of designated referee details as opposed to individual referee contact details dispersed between licensee websites or ‘other arrangements’ as described in the draft RG;
- Extend the ASIC reference checking protocol to other individuals supporting financial planners including for director, management and responsible management roles;
- Support the information sharing protocol with appropriate references to the Privacy Act.
“We look forward to continuing discussions with the Government and regulators on the issues most critical to our members. We strongly encourage our members to keep sharing their feedback on what further support they need so we can continue to build a thriving profession,” added Mr De Gori.
By Dante De Gori CFP®, FPA CEO