Great Southern takes out PI cover for planners
Leading agribusiness group Great Southern Plantations has taken out a special professional indemnity (PI) insurance policy to cover financial planners wanting to recommend agribusiness investment schemes.
The policy will cover any licensed dealer and their authorized representatives in relation to advice given to clients about investing in any of Great Southern’s forestry projects.
Great Southern general manager Cameron Rhodes says the move was a direct response to the crisis in PI insurance gripping sections of the financial planning industry over the past year.
Of the 37 insurers who the Financial Planning Association (FPA) says were willing to provide PI insurance to financial planners last year, only four remain.
Those that are left — QBE, Dexta, the American International Group (AIG) and Macquarie Underwriters - are regularly insisting on excluding their cover from the advice given by financial planners on areas such agribusiness investment schemes.
“This is of particular relevance at the current time, as we understand some underwriters are beginning to impose certain restrictions and exclusions in professional indemnity insurance policies on particular types of financial advice,” Rhodes says.
Great Southern, formed in 1987, has established eucalypt plantations in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland on behalf of more than 13,500 investors.
Rhodes says Great Southern will meet all costs associated with the insurance policy.
“We have to recognise that difficulty in obtaining PI cover has the potential to become a barrier to some groups writing business [for Great Southern],” he says.
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