FPA and IFSA warn industry funds on planning

Jo-Anne Bloch

Australia is confronted by a shortage of financial planners capable of leading to spiralling levels of remuneration, according to the executive director of the Investment and Financial Services Association, Richard Gilbert.

Gilbert used an address to this week’s Conference of Major Superannuation Funds (CMSF) on the Gold Coast to warn there was “a surging demand for advice which is outpacing supply”.

What is more, he said the workings of the Financial Services Reform Act had not been sympathetic to scaled advice or more efficient methods of delivery, meaning the industry at large and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission needed to collaborate to come up with solutions capable of boosting both adviser numbers and throughput.

The chief executive of the Financial Planning Association, Jo-Anne Bloch, also addressed CMSF and called for a united approach between planners and industry funds to the delivery of quality advice to consumers.

Speaking just days after Industry Funds spokesman Garry Weaven had used the conference to reinforce his calls for legislation imposing an obligation on planners to provide advice in the best interests of clients, Bloch said it was time to recognise how heavily regulated the financial advice industry was.

“Recognising that the advice industry is heavily regulated, shouldn’t we embrace the fact that there are different ways to deliver advice,” she said.

“As long as there is tough regulation and as long as there is full disclosure and transparency, consumers should be able to choose whether they need advice, whether they want advice relating to a product only, or whether they want more complex advice, which might include a whole lot more than super.”

Bloch said that a heavily regulated model should be capable of overcoming arguments about fees and commissions and that the real debate should now be about the delivery of advice across the industry to those who need it and want it.