Government and regulator interaction
Following Treasury’s release of the Your Future, Your Super package, we have been in discussions with Treasury about the need for draft regulations to be released in order to determine the full effect of legislative change and our concerns about the proposed best interest obligation.
Our Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO) and Advice in Super Working Groups met with ASIC to discuss the newly released regulatory guide on product DDO and consultation paper on promoting access to affordable advice for consumers. Our Financial Accountability Regime (FAR) Working Group also met with APRA to discuss their consultation on the revised draft prudential standard on remuneration.
Research and submissions
We provided a submission to Treasury in response to the Your Future, Your Super package that outlines some of our members’ concerns about the package, including:
- the lack of materiality in requiring quantitative and qualitative evidence for expenditure
- new proposed regulatory power to prohibit certain payments
- the proposed underperformance test could drive investment decision making contrary to delivering good member outcomes over the medium to long term
- non-inclusion of administrative fees in the proposed performance test.
In our response to ASIC’s consultation paper on promoting access to affordable advice for consumers, we suggest advisors be able to agree with the consumer about the scope of the advice upfront. This will increase certainty in the provision of advice for both the advisor and consumer. We also suggest that some common advice topic areas could be answered through a record of advice (RoA) or other simplified advice document, rather than a statement of advice (SoA).
Media
Our Your Future, Your Super submission was featured in articles in Money Management and Investor Daily. Also, ASFA’s advice submission was featured in Money Management and Super Review articles.
ASFA’s Retirement Standard continued to receive media coverage in an article in The Daily Telegraph.
We also provided commentary to media on investment portfolio disclosure, accessing equity in the home, cost of buy-sell spreads and the importance of the increase in the Superannuation Guarantee to 12%.
Events and Learning
Don’t miss our ASFA Conference during 10-12 February! Some key speakers at the ASFA Conference include the Hon. Jane Hume, the Hon. Paul Keating, Leigh Sales and Lucy Hughes-Turnbull.
During the month of February, we’re also delivering the following learning virtual workshops:
