Phil Anderson
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) welcomes the release of the Financial Services Council (FSC) White Paper (the White Paper), which follows the FSC Green Paper released earlier this year.
AFA General Manager, Policy and Professionalism, Phil Anderson, said the White Paper is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the need to fix the financial advice regulatory regime.
“We also welcome the KPMG report on the cost of financial advice, which highlights the current problem with financial advice being excessively expensive and the importance of finding solutions, including regulatory reforms to reduce this cost.”
Mr Anderson said the White Paper includes a number of recommendations that should help to reduce the cost and time involved in the production of financial advice.
“We particularly welcome the recommendation on the removal of the safe harbour steps, the change of an SoA to a Letter of Advice, and the recommendation that financial advice be tax deductible,” he said.
“This paper is an important input into Treasury’s 2022 Quality of Advice Review, which is a big opportunity to get to the core of the issues and to find solutions to address the problems.”
Mr Anderson said the White Paper is helping to build the momentum for change.
“We look forward to working with all stakeholders to achieve change to make sure that financial advice can remain accessible and affordable for everyday Australians,” he said.
