With a raft of new regulations relating to subjects such as information sharing and hawking set to come into effect next month, Eugene Ardino said the government is “walking back things that are pretty obvious and/or unnecessary” while appearing on the latest episode of the ifa Show.
While he noted the recent ASIC levy relief will help the industry, Mr Ardino said changes like the FASEA exam extension and financial document services were simply errors that needed to be corrected.
“Advisers and licensees, while we are in this legislation expansion phase, all we can do is put on more resources to meet those requirements and pass on those costs to consumers,” Mr Ardino said.
“What else are we supposed to do? It’s the government who is saying they’re serious about making advice more accessible. Well, they need to do things. They need to stop saying that and actually do serious things, drastic things to achieve that; otherwise, we just keep going down this path.”
Mr Ardino said that Lifespan, like all advice businesses in Australia, is trying to structure its business within the rules as best as possible, but that will come at a cost to its service.
“If those rules dictate that we can only service people who can afford to pay $5,000, $10,000 a year in fees, then that’s what it is,” he said.
“But the government saying they don’t want it to go down that path — well, they need to do things.”
Simply errors that need to be corrected? These errors have cost livelihoods and closed businesses.
The convoluted regulations caused me to spend 80 minutes on the phone to a bank to rollover a term deposit for a superfund. I had to get emailed an FSG, I had to be questioned to find if the product was suitable. Then make statements that I was not given advice. Normally I do this all online in 5 minutes, but their online system was down. What a JOKE. I felt sorry for the Bank employee. And to add insult to this, the amount of interest I will earn on the deposit is LESS than the amount of income I lost in time! Can someone please bring some reality into this stupid system?
As they have done absolutely nothing about it I would love to hear a politician disagree with this bloke. I’m starting to like the look of them as a licensee more and more.
Cheap Pollie & ASIC talk is just utter rubbish.
Actions are what counts and look at the insane level of new Red Tape Adviser compliance, even since July 2021.
And October 2021 yet another level of BS REGs madness just about to slam us.
Please see Govt Petition for Advisers, Support staff & clients to sign.
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions
Petition no. EN3360
REDUCING THE COST OF FINANCIAL ADVICE FOR CONSUMERS
Cheap Pollie & ASIC talk is just utter rubbish.
Actions are what counts and look at the insane level of new Red Tape Adviser compliance, even since July 2021.
And October 2021 yet another level of BS REGs madness just about to slam us.
Please see Govt Petition for Advisers, Support staff & clients to sign.
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions
Petition no. EN3360
REDUCING THE COST OF FINANCIAL ADVICE FOR CONSUMERS
Simplified advice, streamlined compliance, one tier licensing, straightforward discipline regime. It’s not hard to do, but the govt and regulators would prefer to pile on. The industry (whats left of it) is professional and stress tested. Get out of our way and let us help Australians. If we do something bad punish the individual not the whole profession.