Minister to be told of FASEA failings


Assistant Treasurer, Stuart Robert will be told next week of the financial planning industry’s disappointment with the lack of progress achieved by the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) when he meets with representatives from the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
The AFA chief executive, Phil Kewin has written to members informing of his organisation’s intentions and lamenting FASEA’s apparent failure to respond to issues which had been put to it in industry submissions.
“We had hoped that by now we would have all the answers on the FASEA requirements, however this is not the case. Some may find this frustrating, however we ask you to stay resilient and to have faith in the future for our great profession,” Kewin’s message said.
“We are greatly disappointed by the lack of change delivered by FASEA in response to our submissions. In our view there is still a lot of work to do in order to get the Professional Standards right.”
“We have written to the FASEA CEO to express our concern. We will also raise our concerns with the Assistant Treasurer, The Hon Stuart Robert MP, when we meet with him again next week, as he has been actively engaged and keenly interested in progress. We will keep you appraised as to our strategy to deal with what happens next.”
Kewin’s message to member said that while the AFA did not doubt a lot of work had been done, the organisation believed a lot of work remained to be done tog et the standard right and that the time-frames had not been ideal, “given the ‘live’ date of 1 January 2019 for some FASEA requirements”.
“We recognise that there will be a number of advisers who have already embarked on their study journey, however, for many their future remains unclear other than the fact that we are all committed to professionalism and ensuring a bright future and great advice for more Australians” his message said.
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