The FPA should consider helping its members to get clients to lobby against the propsed opt-in policy, a Sydney financial planning and longevity expert has said.
My Longevity founder David Williams said the association could build on its recently announced strategy of encouraging financial planners to engage with their local member of parliament to discuss the impact of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms, including opt-in.
"I believe that we can take it further," Williams said at the FPA National Roadshow in Sydney yesterday.
"I believe we should perhaps begin to look at what [clients] think about opt-in and start to marshal them to support us because it is such an important issue and it is against their interests, not only ours, to have this onerous sort of requirement.
"So I would like to suggest we extend the campaign and help planners engage with their clients in an appropriate way, pointing out that many of them will be in this position of having to pay this extra cost as well as the personal burden of dealing with it."
FPA chief executive Mark Rantall said it was a personal decision for planners.
"Financial planners engaging with their clients around opt-in is something that is a personal decision that can be made by each financial planner on its merits and we would be more than happy to help facilitate that if financial planners had a desire to do that," Rantall said.
At the roadshow, Rantall reaffirmed that the FPA was opposed to opt-in.
"I think this is the most heavy-handed piece of onerous overkill policy that I have ever seen," he said.
"Take away the fact that the [Senate] Estimates Committee has already acknowledged that it is going to cost $100 per client to administer opt-in, which equates to - if there's 3 million active clients in Australia, which we anticipate there is - $300 million of gross domestic product for no real benefit.
"I know of no other professional association in the world that has a legislated opt-in incorporated in their requirements, rules and regulations."
The FPA is undertaking a national roadshow to hear from members about its proposed new three-year strategic plan, first announced at its national conference in December.
