Financial planning will be a fully-fledged profession by 2020 or not here at all, an Australian Consumer Association (ACA) spokesman told a financial planning conference in Sydney yesterday
Speaking at the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) conference, ACA senior policy officer Nick Coates for planners not to have become a profession two thingswould have occurred.
Firstly, federal government financial literacy programs will have been implemented in workplaces and schools, and as a result there will be less need for advice. Secondly, product manufacturers had decided to simplify their products and sell them direct.
"The recent budget changes indicated the way the Government might facilitate that process, with Treasurer [Peter] Costello announcing the taxation changes as a way of getting rid of financial advice", Coates said. The solution is to provide good quality unbiased financial advice to consumers.
"Part of our role will be educating consumers that they need to pay for the advice that they get and that they don't get something free", Coates said.
"This will assist them in understanding that what they pay for will add value to their lives and add value to their finances.
"Those that don't get the model right will fall by the wayside."
