ASIC confirms focus on advice which is 'limited and affordable'
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has signalled it believes a key objective in making advice more attractive to consumers is the provision of advice which is “limited and affordable”.
What is more ASIC has said that as part of its current work, it is seeking to identify the “true cost of providing advice”.
Just days after signalling making scaled advice easier to access, the regulator has told a Parliamentary Committee that it will be asking licensees and advisers to respond to a consultation paper looking at the issue of limited and affordable advice as part of its broader unmet advice needs project.
In an answer to a question on notice from the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, ASIC said that its “first public output for the unmet advice needs project is a consultation paper, which seeks to gather information from industry participants (licensees and individual advisers) to help us understand what impediments/issues exist in relation to them providing limited and affordable personal advice to consumers”.
“Our focus is on what practical steps ASIC or industry could take to promote limited and affordable advice,” it said.
The ASIC answer suggested that the consultation would be released to the industry in the current quarter.
“It is too early to assess the success of ASIC’s unmet advice needs project,” the regulator said.
“ASIC has not engaged an independent consultant to analyse the impact of additional regulation on the financial advice sector. We think that this is research that it would be more appropriate for Government to obtain. However, as part of the Unmet Advice Needs project, we are undertaking research about the true cost of providing advice.”
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.