While there were minimal changes announced in this week’s Federal Budget, advisers should not rest on their laurels as more could be announced between now and the May election.
Speaking on a webinar, BT’s head of financial literacy and advocacy, Bryan Ashenden, said there was numerous reviews ongoing where changes could still be announced.
The date of the next Federal election was expected to be announced this weekend with a possible date of 14 or 21 May.
Ashenden said: “Not a lot was announced that would have a significant impact for advisers but it is still possible we could see more announced in the lead-up to the election.
“We like it when there are minimal changes in super announced because it does give some consistency and hopefully gives a bit of clarity. Both for us who work within the advice profession but also to our clients that we’re not seeing more significant changes coming through.”
His precedent for the possibility of further change was that there were several reviews taking place at the moment including the Retirement Income Review, Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of the Corporations Act and the Intergenerational Report.
Ashenden said: “In 2020, we had the Retirement Income Review released and we’ve only seen certain things picked up out of that and some measures to help people re-enter the workforce and the Retirement Income Covenant introduced which will take effect from 1 July, 2022. But we haven’t seen a whole lot more.
“After last year’s Federal Budget, we saw the Intergenerational Report released and there are significant issues that arise from a financial planning and wealth perspective about the transfer of wealth and we haven’t seen a lot of significant announcements from that.
“We also have the current Quality of Advice review underway, that isn’t due to report until December but if you look at the Terms of Reference, could some of the measures included be part of an election policy?”
