Govt urged to provide time and certainty on FOFA and Stronger Super

stronger-super/association-of-superannuation-funds/FOFA/government-and-regulation/ASFA/superannuation-funds/treasury/government/

20 October 2011
| By Mike Taylor |
image
image
expand image

Financial planners are not the only ones concerned about the cost of implementing the Government’s changes to financial services, with superannuation fund trustees also asking for a longer period of transition and greater certainty about the ultimate regulatory environment.

The superannuation fund trustees’ concern is reflected in submission to the Treasury from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) relating to the introduction of MySuper, in which it says a longer transition period will be needed.

The submission warns that the types of changes envisaged by the Government are of a scale and degree of interrelatedness that will not only prove expensive, but will pose considerable risks with respect to altering member databases.

Further, the submission argues that rushing to meet deadlines will increase the risks for the superannuation funds, while any delays or changes to any aspect of either the Stronger Super or FOFA legislation would “significantly impact on trustees’ abilities to implement the required changes in an orderly and appropriately risk-managed fashion”.

“While ASFA supports both the Stronger Super and Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms, it is important to note that compliance with both of these reforms will necessitate considerable changes being made to a mature and complex superannuation system,” the submission said.

“For trustees to be in a position to be able to make the threshold decision as to whether or not to offer a MySuper product necessitates a degree of certainty as to the regulatory requirements going forward,” it said.

The ASFA submission argues that instead of a three-month transition from 1 July 2013, with respect to MySuper the process should be extended to a year.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

2 months ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months 1 week ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months 1 week ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

3 weeks 3 days ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

2 weeks 2 days ago

One licensee has lost 27 advisers in the past week, now sitting at zero, according to the latest Wealth Data figures....

3 weeks 3 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS