No Govt decision on insurance commissions

Financial advisers have been reassured that the Government still hasn't made its decision about banning commissions on insurance products and that discussions on this topic are yet to be held.

Treasury's general manager of the corporations and financial services division, Geoff Miller, addressed planners' concerns at the 2010 Association of Financial Advisers National Conference, noting advisers should be aware that risk insurance products are not within the scope of the proposed reforms package.

"It is true that whatever is decided on insurance will be included in the total package," Miller said. "We know that insurance has a whole lot of other, different factors and we will have separate discussions [on this topic]," he added.

The manager of the Treasury's financial services taskforce unit, Dr Richard Sandlant, told advisers at the conference that the proposed Future of Financial Advice reforms were "very much in line with where you are headed", referring to fiduciary duty, commissions, volume payments and professional standards and ethics.

Sandlant also added that during the upcoming discussions, the Government would take into account concerns expressed at the conference about the proposed commissions ban on insurance products.