Banks signal interest in a return to financial planning
The major banks may have exited most of their financial planning licenses, but they are not done with wealth management or advice provision.
That is the bottom line of comments delivered to the Stockbrokers and Financial Advisers Association (SAFAA) Conference in Sydney this week with Deloitte’s Mark Ryan saying that rather than believing that the banks had exited wealth, it was a question of how long they would remain out.
Ryan, a Deloitte director specialising in wealth management, told a conference panel that he had had a number of conversations with banking clients around how they might ultimately move back into wealth.
He said that their interest in moving back into the wealth space had been prompted by the current discussion around affordable advice delivery and the future role of general advice.
Ryan said that the discussion had involved two large banks in Australia and some US businesses who were considering entering the Australian market.
Ryan revealed the renewed bank interest in financial planning at the same time as other members of the panel suggested there was a need for a comprehensive overall of the legislation covering financial planning.
Rice Warner founder, Michael Rice said that the legislation needed to be rewritten in circumstances where further tweaking would only lead to the creation of greater complexity.
Professor Pamela Hanrahan from the University of NSW agreed on the need for comprehensive legislative reform but said such changes needed to be considered in the context of the existing legislation and the business models which had evolved.
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