FPA addresses shadow shop failures with workshops
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has planned a series of best practice workshops to address recent disastrous financial planning shadow shop results that found only three of 64 financial plans assessed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) were "good".
The educational workshops will be conducted in partnership with ASIC, which conducted the shadow shop, as well as dispute resolution service the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). They will be held in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide throughout May.
The workshops are targeted at all financial planning professionals and will cover the implications of the shadow shop report for individual planners, financial planning business owners, those who work in licensees and dealer groups and other wealth management professionals. They will aim to use the report findings to demonstrate practical ways for financial planners to learn, improve and deliver best practice advice, the FPA stated.
The workshops will be attended by key decision-makers at ASIC and FOS. Spokespeople from ASIC will be on hand to discuss the criteria, methodology and results of the report, while FOS will provide insights on how to prevent disputes, the FPA stated.
FPA chief executive Mark Rantall described it as "a very rare opportunity for our own members and all other stakeholders in the advice community to gain first-hand insights from the regulator, the ombudsman, the professional body and leading practitioners - all in the same place, at the same time".
ASIC Commissioner Peter Kell said the workshops would "provide a vital forum to share the thinking and rationales behind the report in relation to retirement planning advice with a wide range of industry representatives, including the financial planning practitioners who are looking to learn from the lessons revealed in the report".
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