The FPA’s view on commission payments for risk products remains unaltered, claiming industry response and not regulation may facilitate change.
“We are anticipating there is much work to be done at the product level so that they can facilitate a move away from commissions to fees,” FPA acting chief executive Deen Sanders said.
“We think the market will respond to the challenges and ensure that they can deliver both effective and affordable risk insurance advice.
“We’d like to see the market respond to that without necessarily requiring any further increase in regulatory approach or bans.”
Sanders’s comments come as the federal government calls for industry consultation regarding proposed regulatory changes tabled in the Future of Financial Advice reforms.
The FPA has challenged the government to think carefully about the consequences of risk, even though the advice association recognises there is still a perception of conflict, Sanders said.
“If the government were to offer tax deductibility for fees in this space then that would obviously give us reason to potentially consider how that would be a benefit to Australian consumers and whether or not that would allow us to facilitate a move in that space as well,” he said.
Sanders said the FPA stands by its view on risk commissions, stating the association could find no link between commission payments and reported cases of mis-selling of products.
“In our position earlier in the year we arrived at the idea that we weren’t prepared to ban commission payments on risk insurance because there were quite clearly a number of consequences that would almost immediately flow and one of those would obviously be an exacerbation of the underinsurance market,” he said.
“We could find no demonstrated link and we also note, by the way, that nor could the Financial Services Authority in the UK demonstrate any link between commission payments and reported cases of mis-selling.”
In March this year, the FPA announced it would not ban commission payments for risk products.
