Two-tier code canvassed by AFA
The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) has canvassed the idea of having a two-tiered code of conduct, with the higher tier being that which obviates the need for members to comply with the Government's Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) requirements.
The proposal was outlined during a forum which included Australian Securities and Investments Commission deputy chairman, Peter Kell, with new AFA chief executive Brad Fox suggesting such an arrangement might better meet the broader objectives of the financial planning industry.
Discussing the concept with Money Management, Fox said he believed much of the discussion around codes of conduct had become a little misdirected and too focused on the notion of obviating the need for "opt-in".
He said that under the concept being canvassed within the AFA, planners could adhere to a code of conduct which underlined their general commitment to ethical behaviour and the delivery of good advice and — if they wished to obviate the need for opt-in — could commit to a second, more tightly controlled part of the code.
Fox said he believed such an approach represented a common-sense strategy which would allow advisers to commit to a code unfettered by the differently-intended objective of obviating the need to comply with the opt-in provisions.
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