The latest Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) figures for the 2022 income year show consumers were more satisfied with the financial advice provided over the period.
The AFCA statistics revealed the overall number of complaints relating to investments and advice stayed relatively stable, with 2078 being received in the 2022 financial year compared to 2056 in 2020/21. However, when looking at the numbers on a more granular level, the volume of complaints fell significantly in two crucial areas.
To this end, complaints addressing situations where an organisation did not act in the best interest of the client fell from 525 in 2020/21 to 281 in 2021/22, representing a 54 per cent year-on-year drop.
In addition, 2020/21 saw 534 instances of action against inappropriate advice, whereas in 2021/22 there were only 241 of these types of complaints, which was a 45 per cent decrease.
Unfortunately circumstances where consumers felt a financial services firm failed to follow their instructions or an agreement trended in the opposite direction, with these situations increasing from 229 in 2020/21 to 332 in 2021/22.
The analysis also indicated superannuation fund trustees/advisers ranked fourth in the top five financial firm types to have complaints filed against them as was the case last year.
When broken down by financial product lines, superannuation funds and investment organisations received 7 per cent and 5 per cent of the overall complaints respectively. These industry representations did not change from 2020/21 to 2021/22.
Finally, 33 per cent of complaints over investments and advice, and superannuation for 2021/22 were resolved at the registration and referral stage, with 45 per cent of investment complaints and 54 per cent of superannuation actions resolved by agreement.
With reference to specific organisations, the big four banks still fielded the largest number of complaints in total, nearing 20,000, and the number of licensed financial firms with complaints made against them fell by 5 per cent in the most recent financial year.
