Sherry accused of skewing review panel
|
The Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, Senator Nick Sherry, has been criticised for failing to provide an appropriate balance on the committee he has named to review Australia’s superannuation system.
Both analyst reports and industry executives have been critical of the make-up of the committee based on the argument that while the industry funds movement has strong representation, the retail master trusts will have only one certain backer.
The perceived absence of representation for the retail master trusts has been picked up by the Federal Opposition with superannuation spokesman Chris Pearce claiming “key players have been left out as the Government strives to skew the market towards its favoured sectors”.
“This additional review fails to represent all sectors of the industry,” Pearce said. “None of the review panel members represent the retail funds sector.”
In similar fashion, an analyst report from JP Morgan has suggested that only one or possibly two people from a panel of six could be regarded as likely to have a retail funds bias.
The panel will be chaired by the deputy chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Jeremy Cooper, who will be standing aside from his role with the regulator.
The panel members are industry funds stalwart Sandy Grant, former Lazard managing director Brian Wilson, former AMP superannuation specialist Kevin Casey, the acting chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Greg Evans, and Treasury deputy secretary David Gruen.
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.