New move on limited advice licenses amid ASIC review
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) affordable advice review has seen the SMSF Association seek to reignite the discussion around the accountants limited licence advice regime.
However, the SMSF Association wants a redesign to make it easier for its members to provide scaled advice to consumers with a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).
The issue has been raised by SMSF Association chief executive, John Maroney said that SMSF advises being able to provide limited advice represented a key issue.
“We believe this process is our opportunity to address the failed ‘limited licence’ regime and redesign it in a way which for our members to provide scaled advice scoped purely for consumers with an SMSF,” he said.
“The association now intends to collate member feedback, provide practical case studies, and undertake roundtables and focus groups over the next few months to present a compelling case to ASIC for the need for scaled advice for the SMSF sector,” Maroney said.
“We want to outline to ASIC what the real SMSF barriers are and what needs to be done to solve them.
ASIC on Tuesday kicked off the consultation process within its affordable advice review by issuing a consultation paper outlining a number of central questions.
The ASIC consultation paper said it had set out several areas of focus and asked a range of questions:
“We are seeking feedback on:
(a) The problems associated with providing limited advice.
(b) The guidance and examples on limited advice that we have provided in Regulatory Guide 90 Example Statement of Advice: Scaled advice for a new client (RG 90) and Regulatory Guide 244 Giving information, general advice and scaled advice (RG 244);
(c) The terminology used to describe ‘limited advice’ (see Section B);
(d) The availability and affordability of personal advice;
(e) Your experience with digital personal advice (also known as ‘robo-advice’ or ‘automated advice’) and whether this is a good way to provide good-quality limited advice; and
(f) Other issues relating to the delivery of both affordable personal advice and limited advice.”
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