AFA News 30 April 2021. On 19 April 2021 the FSC issued a Green Paper on Affordable and Accessible Advice.

The release of this paper signals the broad acceptance of the problem with the accessibility and affordability of financial advice for everyday Australians and points to the commitment to address this issue. This is on top of ASIC’s work on access and affordability, and the changes that they are currently considering on this issue. We look forward to the outcomes of the ASIC work.

We welcome the FSC’s contribution to the debate and support some of their key recommendations, such as the removal of the Best Interests Duty Safe Harbour, which has become a challenging part of the exercise and where many of the issues relate to a failure to meet the record keeping requirements. The FSC have also proposed the removal of General Advice and splitting financial advice into simple financial advice and complex financial advice.

The FSC are seeking feedback on their green paper, with submissions closing on 1 July 2021.  We encourage members to either do their own submission to the FSC or alternatively to provide feedback directly to the AFA to assist us in our response.

Please click here to read the FSC’s media release on their Green Paper.

For any feedback on this please email policy@afa.asn.au

Issued 30.04.2021. AFA Policy & Education Update