Seniors’ rally against weakened finance sector
A seniors lobby group is concerned that “financial advisers are being given a free lunch pass on the back of consumer savings”.
Seniors lobby group, National Seniors, is concerned that “financial advisers are being given a free lunch pass on the back of consumer savings”.
National Seniors chief executive, Michael O’Neill, said: “Once consumers realise what they’re paying in fees and charges, they won’t tolerate it,” he warned.
“What this says is that consumers do not have support for ensuring basic accountability for the services financial advisers are paid to provide.”
In particular, National Seniors is concerned about proposals to:
- remove the opt-in requirements so that advisers no longer need to seek their client's agreement every two years; and
- remove the retrospective application of the fee disclosure requirement, so that advisers will not need to provide fee disclosure statements to clients who entered into a fee arrangement before the mandatory 1 July 2013 commencement date of FOFA.
“These amendments are being pushed through without proper consumer consultation,” Mr O’Neill said.
“If cutting red tape means creating a murky environment in which the hard earned savings of working Australians end up in the hands of financial advisers, you can leave it,” he added.
Research conducted by Rice Warner Actuaries in 2013 found the FOFA laws would boost private savings under advice by $144 billion by 2027 and reduce the average cost of financial advice from $2,046 to $1,163 by 2026/27.
