Dealer groups maintain that ensuring their advisers are ready for the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms is still a top priority.
“It’s unfortunate that there is still so much uncertainty around FOFA, what the content of FOFA will finally be, how it’s going to get through Parliament and the timing of implementation,” Guardian Financial Planning executive manager of advice Simon Harris told InvestorDaily.
“We’re taking the view of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.”
FOFA would flesh out articulating a clear customer value proposition for customers, so Guardian was ensuring its advisers were well equipped, Harris said.
“We’re asking them to have a really good look at the cost to deliver advice and we’ve got a number of tools, [such as] a best practice calculator, which will calculate all the costs to deliver the service so those advisers can deal with the appropriate service propositions,” he said.
“It is probably inevitable that there will be a degree of change to the advice industry and we just need to make sure that Guardian stays ahead of the curve.”
Patron Financial Advice director Rob McCann said pressing on with opt-in tools for the group’s adviser network continued to be important.
“I think the only thing that was clarified the other day from our perspective is that the future of opt-in looks pretty certain, unless of course the independents vote otherwise,” McCann said.
“So we as a dealer group are creating a set of tools and resources for advisers to be able to move to opt-in. It is absolutely [a priority].”
IOOF also said that being ‘FOFA ready’ was still a priority for its business.
“In order to meet the regulatory deadline, IOOF’s dealer groups have been working closely together as well as engaging with their product manufacturers and external suppliers,” an IOOF spokeswoman said.
“Development of tools to support advisers are well progressed and will be available when required.”
