The Self-Managed Super Funds Professionals Association of Australia (SPAA) will change the code of conduct imposed on its members to satisfy the exemptions to the opt-in requirements for financial planners included in the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms passed through the lower house of parliament last week.
In particular SPAA is aiming to make sure its members are considered practitioners who belong to a professional body with an approved professional code of conduct rendering the compliance with the opt-in requirement unnecessary.
The opt-in obligation makes it compulsory for financial planners to renew their client agreements every two years.
“‘Opt in’ was designed to deal with a lack of engagement by Australians in their financial affairs. SPAA maintains its view that a statutorily imposed ‘opt in’ regime is unnecessary, because the introduction of the Best interest Duty, the banning of commissions and the use of fee for service will assist in building trusted relationships with clients based on agreed terms with the client. Many SPAA members have been operating under a fee for service model for a long time,” SPAA chief executive Andrea Slattery said.
“SPAA welcomes the ‘best interest duty’ long advocating that acting in the best interests of clients is of paramount importance when dealing with engaged consumers – both for professionalism and for true scaled advice to occur,” she added.
To ensure the required standard is met to have its code of conduct approved SPAA will be working closely with ASIC in formulating the proposed modifications.
“The FOFA reforms will result in the raising of standards across the financial planning profession which is a positive step to boosting consumer confidence in advisers,” Slattery said.
