The FPA has brushed aside concerns a change of government could overturn a ban on adviser commissions, with the association’s new chief reaffirming its intention to continue its push to outlaw commission payments by 2012.
Newly appointed FPA chief executive, Mark Rantall, said the association will continue to move the country’s financial planning sector ahead with its ban on commissions even if a Coalition government is elected next month.
“We will absolutely be carrying through the removal and the transition away from commissions on investment and superannuation,” Rantall said.
“It would appear a lot of the FoFA [future of financial advice] reform is potentially not being contemplated by the opposition.
“My understanding at this stage is they are looking at retaining opt-in, they are not supporting the banning on commissions on investments or superannuation, and I haven’t heard much of their response to Cooper.
“And in fairness, they are probably still formulating their views around some of those things.”
As well as standing firm on its commission ban on advice, Rantall reiterated the association does not support the removal of commissions on insurance.
“We don’t think there’s a problem to be solved there, and in fact the only problem that needs to be solved on insurance is Australians’ massive under-insurance problem,” he said.
In regards to the FPA’s discussions with government, the association’s deputy chief executive Deen Sanders said while talks are continuing, there is a danger the debate could become fractured.
“We’re focusing on the whole of client issue. We are concerned that the FoFA taskforce and the Cooper review process is frankly in danger of fracturing the debate, moving it along product lines rather than client lines,” Sanders said.
“Our real concern is the fact that the whole of client needs to be at the centre of this conversation, that this is not a debate about super as distinct from investment, as distinct from insurance.
“It’s a debate about the way Australian consumers engage with their financial futures as a whole picture, so our taskforce mirrors that.”
Rantall took over the chief executive role from Jo-Anne Bloch in May.
