Advice industry low standards go back a decade: ASIC
The financial planning industry has illustrated "inappropriate levels of quality" going back more than a decade, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said.
ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said the corporate regulator has been publically raising a red flag against shadow shops in the industry demonstrating low quality.
"ASIC has now for many years publicly been raising our concerns about systemic problems in the financial planning industry," Kell said.
"We certainly recognise that that's a problem; there needs to be a lot of work by the financial community to lift their game."
The comments come after ASIC announced a crackdown on former financial advisers at the Macquarie group, and contact 160,000 clients about providing remediation for flawed financial advice.
Kell said ASIC will soon release a report on the sale and quality of advice around life insurance, an area the corporate regulator will focus on in the near future across the industry.
It will also be focusing on the establishment of self-managed superannuation funds, and investments around SMSFs to ensure it is being carried out appropriately.
ASIC said it supports a model where clients have the choice to access independent advice if they want to, and indicated it will likely be a component of future remediation processes.
"We also think that access to the financial ombudsman scheme is a critical part of the process and therefore it's essential that the ombudsman scheme is able to consider all matters irrespective of what timeframe they occurred in," Kell said.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
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