Qualified compliance professionals need to play a significant role to ensure super trustees, who under new rules can provide limited personal advice, act in the best interest of their members, the Australasian Compliance Institute has said.
"We would like to see it a mandatory requirement that trained and accredited compliance professionals work alongside super trustees to ensure they understand what they're doing, meet legislative requirements and overall do the right thing by their clients," ACI chief executive Martin Tolar told InvestorDaily.
The decision by the federal government and ASIC last week to give legislative relief to super trustees when providing limited personal advice to their fund members created a completely new group of advisers who would need to be supervised, Tolar said.
"A strong compliance framework must be in place to prevent a rise in complaints by fund members and we do question whether the regulator is adequately resourced to undertake this expanded supervision," he said.
"We're supportive of the concept to give those who can't afford to see a financial adviser access to limited advice through their super fund, however it's important that trustees understand what constitutes personal advice versus general advice, and that they don't stray between the two.
"It is also important that there is adequate protection for fund members if they do opt to receive advice from their super trustee and that they understand that there is not the same recourse if something does go wrong with the advice given."
Under the new ruling there are not the same safeguards in place regarding the advice given by super trustees that there are with financial advisers, which is why ACI has advocated that the proper compliance measures be in place to prevent problems before they eventuate, Tolar said.
