Hales Douglass clients guaranteed ‘best interest’ advice regardless of FOFA’s future.
FOFA (Future of Financial Advice Act) was introduced mid last year to protect consumers and require financial planners to act in the best interests of their clients, also prohibiting them from obtaining sales commissions and other forms of conflicted remuneration.
The fate of FOFA has been in the balance this past week. The Coalition wants to remove the catch-all “best interests” provision, leaving in place the specific requirements that are at present backed up by the provision. They also would allow advisors and clients to agree to limit the scope of advice in a way that made clear there was no expectation the advisor would act in the client’s “best interests”.
The definition of “conflicted remuneration” would be narrowed to allow advisors to continue to receive payments in kind from product providers where the advice was general rather than personal.
Regardless of the Coalition’s decision on FOFA, our clients who receive financial planning advice can rest easy knowing that Hales Douglass Financial Services has it’s own Financial Services Licence and therefore has no conflicts of interests, unlike 90% of advisors, who are owned or run by large financial institutions and may have product influences that affect the “best interest” of their advice.
So consumers looking for financial advice should ask themselves:
- Is my adviser an expert on the advice they are providing?
- And are they acting in my best interest?
Contact Adam Passwell or Andrew Clegg on 02 4455 5333 for further information on financial planning, remunerations, commissions, or any other questions regarding financial advice.
