Blog
Are you one of the 89% of the Licensee population who hasn’t lodged a breach report to ASIC?
ASIC’s Report 775 released on 31 October shows that only 11% of licensees have lodged a report. This is a surprisingly low number and suggests that some licensees may not have in place the systems and processes required to detect and report breaches. Do you?
Government announces QAR response
Conrad Travers shares his thoughts about Minister Stephen Jones today’s announcements in mid June 2023 regarding the government’s response to the Quality of Advice Review (QAR).
A summary of the government’s response; assuming this passes the legislative process:
Safe harbour removed from BID.
Ongoing fee renewal (FDS) removed and fee consent to be consolidated in one industry wide form.
SOA replaced with "fit for purpose" advice record
Wholesale warnings to come in
Consent requirements for life, general and CCI
Tax deductibility advice ‘a step in the right direction’
“With an Australian Tax Office (ATO) review underway to make financial advice tax deductible, Tangelo Advice Consulting’s Conrad Travers has reiterated why this would be a positive step forward for the industry.
Though Travers, who had been involved in the ATO’s review and update of TD95/60 along with Deloitte legal practitioner director James Alsop, couldn’t offer explicit details on the review, he said: “We are really hopeful that a good portion of ongoing fees will be tax deductible as a result of that efficacy”. “We feel like this is a really strong step in the right direction, and we're going to keep advocating on your behalf,” he told audience members at the 2023 United Association Roadshow.”
Royal Commission recommendations are due for implementation in 2021 - have you prepared?
As part of the Royal Commission recommendations, there are a raft of changes coming our way, including independence declaration, the banning of advice fees inside MySuper products and the widening of reference checking processes industry wide. These changes will all require some level of action to accommodate, but there are two changes which we believe are most significant that licensees should start acting on now (if they haven’t already) which are the breach reporting and ongoing fee arrangement changes.