The Federal Opposition has signalled that it has not changed its position and will not necessarily be supporting enshrining the terms 'financial planner' or 'financial adviser' in law.
The Shadow Assistant Treasurer and opposition spokesman on Financial Services, Senator Mathias Cormann, has confirmed to Money Management that while the Coalition will give due consideration to any legislation introduced by the Minister for Financial Services, Bill Shorten, his position had not changed.
The minister announced late last year that he would be moving ahead with legislation to restrict the use of the terms 'financial planner' and 'financial adviser' this year something broadly welcomed by the financial planning industry.
However Senator Cormann said he remained unconvinced that any need existed for such legislation.
"We will obviously consider what comes out of the current consultation process but I remain unconvinced of the need for this additional bit of regulation," he said.
"Bear in mind that the term 'accountant' is not enshrined in legislation and, already, you can only provide financial advice if you have an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) through ASIC [Australian Securities and Investments Commission]," Senator Cormann said.
"Providing financial advice without an appropriate AFSL is fraud now. I can't see how creating an additional offence achieves anything more," he said.
Senator Cormann said there was nothing stopping organisations such as the Financial Planning Association (FPA) from positively promoting the fact that membership of their organisation gave consumers additional assurances on quality, given members have to comply with certain minimum professional standards and education requirements.
The opposition spokesman last year pointed out that the term "accountant" was not enshrined in law.
