BT removes grandfathering for salaried advisers

Salaried advisers working for BT Financial Advice through Westpac, St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA will no longer receive grandfathered payments from 1 October 2018.

The change would have had a bottom line impact of $14 million on BT's first half earnings for 2018.

The news confirms comments by BT Financial Advice general manager Michael Wright before the royal commission into banking on 23 April.

>Salaried advisers working for BT Financial Advice through Westpac, St George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA will no longer receive grandfathered payments from 1 October 2018.

The change would have had a bottom line impact of $14 million on BT's first half earnings for 2018.

The news confirms comments by BT Financial Advice general manager Michael Wright before the royal commission into banking on 23 April.

At the time, Mr Wright said BT Financial Advice would end grandfathered commissions for superannuation and investments, while risk commissions would remain in place.

In its announcement yesterday, BT said it would continue to honour its contractual obligations with external financial advisers.

"However, should they request the removal of grandfathered payments, we will assist them to make similar changes," said the BT statement.

"Five years on [from FOFA], more than 140,000 BT Advised customer accounts are still subject to these grandfathered payments.

"We have considered this position from both a customer and a stakeholder perspective and decided that it is the right time to draw a line under these past arrangements and eliminate them as far as we are contractually able," said BT.