Appearing at a Senate committee on Wednesday, Joe Longo was asked by senator Slade Brockman about the sector, which Mr Brockman said has suffered from “regulatory overload” and that advisers “feel under an extraordinary amount of pressure”.
“From my perspective, it’s really important, in order for consumers and investors to participate confidently in our financial markets, to be able to have access to advice they can afford and to advice they can understand and have ready access to,” Mr Longo said.
“[There’s] no question that our system at the moment is complex and there’s a range of requirements that financial advisers have to comply with.
“As we know, there’s been a number of recent legislative changes coming out of the Royal Commission that have relevance to this problem as well.
“So for my part, I am concerned about this sector. I think it’s really important that consumers have access to affordable advice, to financial services advice.
“It will be one of my priorities to see what can be done to address that issue.”
It comes just a week after AIA Australia’s Australian Financial Advisers Wellbeing Report – which surveyed over 700 local advisers – found that 73 per cent are experiencing high levels of burnout from stress while 67 per cent experienced some level of depression.
A further 61 per cent of survey respondents reported trouble sleeping as a result of stress, while around a third of advisers who participated in the report said they were seeing a medical professional to manage their mental health issues.
Mr Longo concluded by saying that the sector is dealing with a “complex regime”.
“I think one of the challenges for ASIC and for policy makers is to figure out a way of making that regime more digestible with the practical effect of consumers having access to affordable advice,” he said.
