Industry

Having poached a number of high-profile portfolio managers (often at a discount), and with backing from family offices and high net worth investors, new boutique Blackwattle is trying to correct the “inadequacies” of the Australian funds management industry.

Back in 2019, then-FPA CEO Dante De Gori and Tangelo Advice Consulting’s Conrad Travers engaged the ATO to see if it would be open to updating guidance on the tax deductibility of upfront advice fees. By the middle of this year, we should see the outcome.

“The worst case scenario is that things have definitely stabilised,” Wealth Data’s Colin Williams tells The Inside Adviser. “Best case scenario is that we’re seeing some growth.”

“There’s so much pain, so much division on this one,” FAAA CEO Sarah Abood said of the proposed exemption. “It actually really upsets me, as I know it upsets many members.”

Consumers will be bamboozled by the government’s plan to divide advisers into “experienced” and “relevant” camps, the association explained. That, and the need for a sunset clause, mean the current proposal needs work.

The 16,000 advisers providing full-service, holistic advice aren’t the ones who can plug the advice gap, Mota explained. Levy’s plan, however, has the potential to facilitate a “quantum shift” in the industry.

While FoFA was the right policy for its era, Ripoll says the industry has come a long way and has different needs. The Quality of Advice Review’s proposals are an “important step” for today’s industry, he believes.

The RBA will either take the road that equity markets are pricing in, and try to nail a smooth landing, or follow the road that bond markets anticipate and re-raise interest rates, according to Atrium’s Brendan Paul.

After buying Powerwrap and shrugging off its own buyout offer from Netwealth, Praemium has joined the top tier of platform providers on the back its data and reporting capabilities.

Advisers can practice without a relevant degree for around 30 years according to the draft proposal. They do need a clean record, however – but only up to the end of 2021.

While it pays for advisers to work closer to a large cohort of well-heeled clients in metropolitan areas, the opposite is true for paraplanners, with scarcity of talent pushing salaries sky-high for regional workers.

The new association will be branded with its key purpose – providing a unified voice representing advisers – reflected in speech bubbles over the ‘A’s in its name.