Funds should not provide 'advice'
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A financial planning group head believes that interactions between superannuation funds and their members should not be termed ‘advice’.
Guardian Financial Planning executive manager Steve Browning said that terming such interactions as ‘advice’ carried with it the risk of confusing consumers and that it should, instead, be termed “informed guidance”.
In doing so, Browning said Guardian was calling on the Government to require that superannuation trustees in the process of providing informed guidance include a verbal and written warning to members of the limitations of their informed guidance.
He said that, in addition, the trustee should be obliged to explain in writing what full financial advice would constitute and where they might access a full financial advice service.
“Without that, the risk is that people will walk away believing they have received financial advice while what they have received, in reality, is informed guidance restricted to one tax-effective investment structure called superannuation,” Browning said.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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