Sentiment changing on financial planners

Attitudes appear to be changing within the superannuation industry on whether financial planners can provide appropriate advice when they are remunerated by way of commissions.

For the first time ever, a survey conducted by Money Management’s sister publication, Super Review, has come up with a split decision from respondents on the key question of the provision of financial planning advice within superannuation and commissions-based payments.

The IUS/Super Review Super Outlook survey asked, “Do you believe appropriate advice can be given to superannuation fund members in circumstances where planners are being paid by way of commissions?”.

The survey elicited a 50/50 response, with half of the respondents saying yes and half saving no.

This compares with the strongly negative results recorded on the two previous occasions the question was asked within the IUS/Super Review survey.

Just as importantly for financial planners, a strong majority of respondents favoured allowing superannuation fund members to use a portion of their superannuation funds to pay for appropriate financial advice.

The survey revealed that 85.3 per cent of survey respondents favoured allowing the use of superannuation to pay for advice.

As equally important, the survey suggests that superannuation funds should be allowed to play a greater role in the provision of advice to their members.

Asked whether the regulators should relax the rules with respect to financial advice so that more could be provided by superannuation funds, 81.9 per cent of respondents said yes.

While the survey was conducted between October and December and during the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia conference on the Gold Coast in late November, the results with respect to financial planning appear to indicate a greater involvement of financial planners in the superannuation industry.

Full details of the survey will be published in the February edition of Super Review.