Government welcomes short disclosure documents
|
The Government has welcomed regulations prescribing short and simple product disclosure documents for margin loans, superannuation and simple managed investment schemes.
“Cutting down product disclosure documents from over 100 pages to eight pages and making it easier for businesses to use alternative methods such as the internet for disclosing large amounts of detailed product information will also reduce costs for industry,” said the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner.
The reforms mark the completion of the Government’s second Better Regulation Ministerial Partnership between the Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law, Chris Bowen, and Tanner, and form a key part of the Rudd Government's better regulation agenda, Tanner said in a statement.
Bowen said the shorter product disclosure documents would make it more likely that investors would read the information and make better investment decisions.
The Government consulted through public information sessions, a margin lending industry consultation group and an advisory panel of key financial services industry and consumer representatives in developing shorter product disclosure documents, the statement read.
Consumer testing sessions were also undertaken and following public consultation significant numbers of submissions were received that informed the final regulations, according to the statement.
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.