AIOFP to take Govt to court over grandfathering

AIOFP/peter-johnston/financial-planning/grandfathered-commissions/

4 March 2019
| By Hannah Wootton |
image
image
expand image

The Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) has hired a QC to represent it before the High Court, where it hopes to argue that proposals to ban grandfathered revenue are unconstitutional.

The group’s executive director, Peter Johnston, believed that its chances were “better than even”, saying that constitutional restrictions requiring the acquisition of property meant that particular remuneration structures could only be band prospectively.

It planned to use comments by then-Minister for Financial Services, Bill Shorten, to this effect to support its case.

The AIOFP didn’t clarify however, what its legal argument would be in relation to the proposed bans taking effect going forward. A statement from its legal team said that it was taking advice on a potential challenge to the validity of the proposed amendments to grandfathering without compensation to advisers, but it was unclear why such an argument would have standing before the High Court.

Johnston said the push to ban grandfathering was based on “trash” claims by consumer groups and institutional lobbying, and had become a “political football” used by Shorten and Scott Morrison to “grasp some political kudos”.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months 3 weeks ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months 3 weeks ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 4 weeks ago

ASIC has suspended the Australian Financial Services Licence of a Melbourne-based financial advice firm....

1 week 5 days ago

The corporate regulator has issued infringement notices to three AFSLs whose financial advisers provided personal advice to a retail client while unregistered....

2 weeks 3 days ago

ASIC has released the results of its first adviser exam to be held in 2025, with 241 candidates attempting the test....

3 weeks 1 day ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND