Speaking in a recent podcast, shadow minister for financial services and superannuation Stephen Jones said that with Australians retiring with more money than ever as a result of super, it is vital they are able to access the right advice at the right time.
However, the raft of advice reforms in recent years has made this harder, Mr Jones told Momentum Media’s editor of mortgages Annie Kane.
Mr Jones stated that the current advice model is broken and that a new approach is needed that recognises the diversity of professionals in the advice sector.
“The existing market is busted. It’s not going back to the way it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago, so we need a new business model, and it’s not one, it’s lots of business models which provide reliable professional advice and information to people.
“The profession is not homogenous. You’ve got brokers, you’ve got advisors, you’ve got risk advisors, you’ve got wealth advisors. There is a core level of qualification that is needed that is common to all of them, but there are also specialisations within a profession that need to be accounted for in the accreditation and licensing system and we want to fix that,” he said.
Mr Jones said it was also important that any advice model recognises that not everyone is going to require the same sort of advice and that they’re not going to need the same sort of advice at every point in their life.
While government sets the regulations and has a role in some parts of the market, Mr Jones said it is up to financial advisers and the advice sector to come up with business models that will provide consumers with what they want in a safe environment.
“We are absolutely focused on getting that right if we win the May election. Advice is an unfinished piece of the puzzle that we need to get right,” he said.
Mr Jones also noted that there had been suggestions that the big solution to the issue of accessibility to affordable advice is to let all the APRA-regulated super funds provide advice by changing the intra-fund rules.
“[The idea] that funds can just get into the advice business – I’m incredibly unattracted to that idea,” he stressed.
“If we did that, it’d be like just setting the clock for the next Hayne Royal Commission with that sort of supercharged vertical integration model. So, we need different approaches in this area.”
Its going to take years to fix this mess they made and meanwhile the clients will suffer from lack of advice and the advisers will keep paying levies to asic….
I think in view of Labor’s attitude to SMSFs at the last election, members will be a little wary of any new changes Labor proposes.
Not sure exactly what that guy is suggesting. I wonder who is briefing him.
I think he meant to say: “I’ve had some ideas in the past, but have changed my mind numerous times after to speaking with people in the industry. At this point, I’m just fluffing around the issues trying to avoid committing to anything just in case I put my foot in it. I’m a lawyer by trade, but have really only worked as secretary for a few Unions over the last 20 years, so I actually don’t have much of a clue about this stuff…….”