Financial Advice Association Australia CEO Sarah Abood said the association is focused on achieving efficiency improvements for members in the financial advice fee consent process.
Her comments follow a pushback last week from the Association of Super Funds of Australia, which argued that the Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, cannot prescribe a form without a consensus that “does not exist presently”.
Ongoing advice fee consent forms were a controversial issue in the first tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms, with advice associations largely pushing for the removal of consent forms entirely.
Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes and Other Measures) Act 2024, which was passed in July, the mandatory content for ongoing fee consents was amended and replaced the ASIC’s ability to prescribe this content with ministerial ability.
Treasury explained this means that the minister has the power to approve a form for “giving consent to enter into or renew an ongoing fee arrangement or authorise the deduction of ongoing fees”.
In a submission to Treasury, ASFA stated it does not believe there is broad consensus for the approval of such a form, or that clear efficiency benefits will be achieved.
Abood said the FAAA, along with other members of the Joint Associations Working Group (JAWG), have provided feedback to Treasury to assist in the design of a standard mandatory form on which all product providers, including superannuation funds, will be entitled to rely.
“Standardisation of advice fee consent has been universally supported by our members and the licensees and businesses that support them,” she said.
“Ultimately, we would like to see a fully digital solution that enables clients to authorise the payment of advice fees through an application on their phone.
“We remain keen to work with all key stakeholders to achieve an outcome that is in the best interests of consumers. Moving to a consistent process will require an upfront investment by product providers. However, over time we expect this will deliver efficiencies for product providers as well.”
