Are all planners competent to be self-licensed?
As many as half of those planners holding their own Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) should not be, according to the executive chairman of the Fortnum Financial Group, Ray Miles.
Speaking during a panel of dealer group heads at Money Management's Fintech, Platforms and Wraps Conference, Miles questioned whether enough planners who had chosen to become self-licensed actually understood the obligations such a move entailed.
He said he had been aware of the numbers of people who had talked up the benefits of planners holding their own AFSL, but believed at least 50 per cent of those who had chosen to do so should not be self-licensed.
The panel, made up Miles, Infocus Wealth Management chief executive, Rod Bristow, GPS Wealth managing director, Grahame Evans, and Premium Wealth Management chief executive, Paul Harding-Davis, broadly agreed that the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) changes had imposed considerable additional cost on the industry for negligible benefits.
All four defended the value offered by dealer groups, particularly with respect to delivering on regulatory compliance and other back-end services.
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