Synchron unhappy with Trowbridge recommendation to limit remuneration
In response to the Trowbridge report financial adviser group Synchron has criticised recommendations to limit adviser remuneration.
The report recommended that there should be a limit to adviser remuneration to an amount that does not cover the cost of providing insurance advice.
"The commercial reality is that if the numbers don't stack up, any business of any size is out of business," Synchron director, Don Trapnell, said.
"If we put small financial advice businesses out of business that's bad news for consumers, it's bad news for advisers and ultimately it's bad news for Australia."
Trapnell announced that he and Synchron independent chair, Michael Harrison, would head to the UK next week to study the effects of the UK's Retail Distribution Review (RDR).
"We decided some time ago to go on a fact-finding mission to the UK to observe the effects of the RDR on the advice profession, how UK legislation and/or regulation has changed as a result and whether there are lessons Australia could learn from the experience," he said.
"The question we will be trying to answer is this — if the UK has been through a similar experience, why has it resulted, or conversely not resulted, in the implementation of recommendations similar to those contained in the Trowbridge report and how has that affected the profession as a whole."
Recommended for you
Policy and advocacy specialist Benjamin Marshan has left the Council of Australian Life Insurers after less than a year, having joined in March from the Financial Planning Association of Australia.
The declining volume of risk advisers meant KPMG has found a rising lapse rate for insurance policies arranged by independent financial advisers, particularly in the TPD and death cover space.
The Life Insurance Code of Practice has transferred from the Financial Services Council to the Council of Australian Life Insurers.
The firm has announced it will no longer be writing new life insurance policies in the retail advised and corporate group insurance channels, citing a declining market and risk adviser numbers.