National Seniors slams planners over AFS
National Seniors, a 200,000 strong lobby group for Australia's over 50s, has called on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to better regulate financial planners in light of potential losses faced by investors in the Australian Financial Services (AFS) Group collapse.
It said failed advisers, often with lapsed professional indemnity (PI) insurance, were ruining the retirement plans of older Australians.
National Seniors chief executive Michael O'Neill, referring to an article in The Australian, said AFS Group clients, many of which were self-managed super funds (SMSFs), had been invested in "inappropriate" investments. They were unlikely to get their money back because the firm's PI insurance policies had lapsed.
O'Neill said it was time ASIC took a tougher approach to regulating the financial planning industry and also to better informing investors.
"Some financial advisers are taking advantage of trusting and inexperienced retirees and frankly giving the rest of the industry a bad name," O'Neill said.
"What retirees and people approaching retirement want is assurance and meaningful protection to make advisers accountable and the regulations that govern them more enforceable.
"ASIC also needs to be accountable for the role it has in creating a fair environment, especially for inexperienced investors."
He said National Seniors research had shown investors' knowledge did not align with the complexity of today's financial products — many were embarrassed to talk to their financial planner for fear of "being judged negatively", he said.
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