New online initiative to aid FSR compliance

AustralianFinancial Services licensees will be assisted in meeting the Financial Services Reform (FSR) Act PS 146 requirements following the creation of a new online service, FinAssessOnline.

The start-up initiative, launched earlier this month, is the result of an alliance between research provider Plan For Life and software group Aframe.

The online service provides product information and testing facilities to assess the knowledge of advisers on specific risk and investment products, allowing licensees to ensure minimum knowledge requirements are being met.

Aframe marketing and sales manager Richard McFarlane says: “The feedback we have received from dealer groups is that the system has come just in time.”

Plan for Life will provide regular updated product accreditation assessments on risk products, pensions and annuities, corporate and personal superannuation, insurance and investment bonds, master funds/IDPS and unit trusts. And Aframe will provide the technology-base, which will allow dealer groups to provide access to FinAssessOnline via their own web sites.

McFarlane says they are in advanced negotiations with one dealer group to sign up for FinAssessOnline, while 16 other groups are currently conducting pilots of the service.

Plan For Life managing director Simon Solomon says, “The joint venture has produced a service to licensees and their advisers that will significantly address the onerous task — now to be the responsibility of the licensee — of complying with ASIC’s competency requirements for all advisers across a vast range of insurance and investment products”.

The service is also attractive to groups as a simple way of accrediting advisers for products that they don’t normally write business for, according to Plan For Life consultant Peter Sobels, and also to “skill up” non-adviser staff members, such as BDMs, who still require comprehensive product knowledge.

McFarlane says they are in advanced negotiations with one dealer group to sign up for FinAssessOnline, while 16 other groups are currently conducting pilots of the service.