It is a belief of some planners that ASIC lost the opportunity to make inroads into the licensing of planners eight to 10 years ago when it was just getting on its feet.
Now, however, the controls by the big end of town have changed that. According to planners responding to an earlier editorial (IFA issue 419), a few managers now have control over the large majority of advisers.
Conflicts should be eradicated by FPA licensing and thus representing financial planners only, one planner said.
However, in discussions it seems that planners do not think conflicts will ever truly disappear. Instead, more transparency with added disclosures is the only solution they foresee.
The idea of having planners own their own licences, however, will prevent situations, such as one experienced by a planner in this week's page four story, where the adviser is unable to find other work because their dealer group does not inform ASIC of their departure.
This is a situation not faced by accountants, who hold their qualification independent of the company for which they work.
It all comes back to qualifications and education.
The more highly-qualified members are required to be, the more independently they will be considered for licensing and the better off the profession will be: better in the eyes of the members, regulators and, most importantly, the general public.
Yes, those clients that you have are generally pleased with their planner, but there are still seven out of 10 Australians who don't have a financial planner and that's a pretty big market to go after.
