FASEA

“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.”

Implementing the current proposal for ‘experienced’ advisers to skip the relevant degree mandate will do far more harm than good, the association argues, with both current and future advisers turned off by the plan.

The Federal Government has quietly passed several previously flagged changes to the financial advice industry. The majority appear to be a positive step in the face of what is a jungle of red tape currently faced by the shrinking cohort of financial advisers. There were four key changes, with all eyes on the potential for…

As highlighted in our article recently covering the formation of the ‘single disciplinary body’ to govern and regulate individual financial advisers, the landscape continues to evolve on a near daily basis. Comments from ASIC in response to their call for submissions to make financial advice more affordable, suggested the Record of Advice could be set…

April may well be remembered as the beginning of the next phase of financial advice in Australia. While the establishment of FASEA may have had far reaching implications, a triumvirate of news this week is set to shape the way advice is delivered and advisers are regulated for decades to come. Leading the headlines was…

The financial services regulator ASIC has ramped-up its legislative activity in 2021, following a 2020 dominated by pandemic support and leniency. Commenting to media in recent weeks, ASIC’s deputy chair Karen Chester flagged recent proceedings lodged against industry funds Rest Super and Statewide Super as just the beginning. She flagged a “now-mature pipeline of non-Royal…

Despite hope that the vaccines would see a return to normal life in 2021, it appears we will live through at least another 12 months of uncertainty. Few people, outside of the obvious, have felt the emotional and operational brunt of the pandemic more than financial advisers. Most advisers I speak to were inundated with…

Financial advice industry bodies including the SMSF Association (SMSFA), Association of Financial Advisers (AFA), and Financial Planning Association (FPA) have jumped on ASIC’s Affordable Advice review to call for an industry reset. This week the SMSF Association released their submission, with key concerns relating to compliance, both in terms of costs and burdens being applied,…

The beginning of 2020 has been dominated by headlines of mass adviser departures from the industry, with the number of registered advisers having fallen to levels of five years ago. While this may make for great headlines, it says little about the progress being made in the professionalisation of the financial advice industry, particularly in…

To say the last few years have been testing for advisers would be a gross understatement. The reverberations of the Hayne Royal Commission, which highlighted important issues, though mainly those faced by vertically integrated institutions, has led to a big increase in compliance costs and regulatory hurdles. The result in many cases has been the…