Time to unwind: FPA

Financial planners should relax over the Christmas period, with the Financial Planning Association predicting that 2014 will be an easier year than 2013.

FPA chief executive Mark Rantall said the outlook for the financial planning industry was positive with much of the regulatory reforms bedded down and a recent FPA/Galaxy Research survey finding 92 per cent of financial advisers expect more Australians to seek financial advice in the next three years.

Rantall said the FPA’s key priorities for 2014 were to make the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms, “more workable”, particularly around the Fee Disclosure Statements, as well as enshrining the term financial adviser in law and addressing inconsistencies within the Tax Agent Services Act (TASA).

The TASA regime, which will be effective from July 1, 2014, requires financial planners to be registered and be accredited under TASA.

During an FPA roundtable discussion on Wednesday, Rantall said the FPA would push for a further extension to the start date if necessary and would also lobbying the government to make upfront financial advice tax deductable.

He announced that the FPA was also in the process of upgrading its database system to allow it to track and monitor its members more closely.

“In the short term, 2014 will be easier than 2013 in the sense that there’s nothing that immediately needs to be addressed but we are confident many structural challenges will present themselves,” Rantall said.

“We expect each challenge will provide new opportunity to position our case on behalf of members and the entire profession.”

On the issue of fee disclosure statements (FDSs), FPA’s general manager of policy and conduct Dante de Gori said the association would pursue greater freedom around the development of FDS including flexibility around the setting and resetting of disclosure dates and potentially a reprieve from the requirement to issue an FDS within 30-days of the client’s one-year anniversary date.