For a moment it looked like the great divide between the retail and the industry fund sectors was getting smaller.
This development was driven by the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms, which sought to eradicate commissions.
Although industry funds might have won the battle on payments, they could also no longer run advertisements bashing the commissions charged by the financial advisers of retail funds, as they were soon to disappear.
This development would blur the lines between the sectors to a significant degree, at least in the eyes of members, especially as industry funds had also embraced intra-fund advice.
As the different players prepared to settle into the new arrangements, a certain mellowing in attitude could be noticed.
AustralianSuper forged an alliance with a panel of financial planning firms, while even Industry Super Network chief executive David Whitely could be heard saying to a delegation of the Association of Financial Advisers at a FOFA public inquiry in Sydney that the two industries had become a lot closer in recent times.
But this mellowing in attitudes could take quite a dramatic turn now the ban on commissions is no longer underpinned by an opt-in rule.
Opt-in ensured advisers had to seek contact with their clients on a regular basis and, therefore, could not sit back and watch the money come in for a service delivered sometime in the past - a practice that even the big institutions referred to as 'lazy business models'.
But a one-page amendment to FOFA filed in Parliament last week changed all that.
Measures were introduced that would enable most financial planners to qualify for exemptions to the opt-in rule.
Although the legislation might weed out the worst excesses - such as 10 per cent trailing fees from certain agricultural schemes with no real reason for existence - these exemptions will ensure the status quo will be largely maintained.
After all, history has taught us that the switch from built-in commissions to asset-based fees has minimal impact on the relationship between advisers and product manufacturers.
And as business models will not have to change radically, the great divide is likely to remain in place.
