The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) has announced its advocacy priorities for 2024, highlighting three specific areas central to its efforts to provide benefits for members and the broader financial advice sector.
“It is the year when clarity and certainty about the provision of financial advice should be delivered, both to financial advisers and to Australians who can benefit from their advice,” FAAA chief executive Sarah Abood stated.
“The FAAA will be focusing on three main areas during 2024 – making it easier and cheaper to provide advice, re-engaging with consumers and growing the profession.”
Commenting on the provision of affordable financial advice, Abood noted the first step will be seeking clarification on certain aspects of the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) after the federal government’s announcement in November last year that it would implement the remaining recommendations.
“The FAAA has been generally supportive of the package proposed by the federal government in response to the QAR recommendations, but there is still a way to go with important detail still missing in some areas,” she said.
“We are calling on government and regulatory bodies to move swiftly to provide the necessary detail and timelines for consultation and implementation.
“We will be asking all our members to respond quickly, and in numbers, to any consultations or submissions so we can develop a unified response on their behalf in a short timeframe.”
She added the industry body would also be looking into the suitability of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission levy, the implementation of the compensation scheme of last resort and the use of technology such as artificial intelligence to reduce the cost of providing financial advice.
The body also flagged engaging with individuals who typically do not seek financial advice as a top priority, especially given the increasing prevalence of sophisticated scams.
“There is still a perception that financial advice is only for the already well-off. The reality is that the majority of working Australians, as well as retirees, can benefit from the advice of a registered qualified financial planner and will receive great value as the benefits of financial advice far outweigh the cost for average as well as wealthy Australians,” Abood said.
The future growth of the profession remains a major concern for the FAAA, with around 1000 advisers leaving the industry between 2022 and May 2023. To that end, Abood said the body will be exploring more pathways for advisers to enter the profession.
“We need more great advisers and to achieve that we need to get the message out there that financial planning has a really attractive career path. There is no reason that we can’t reach more than 100,000 financial advisers,” she noted.
“We will be looking at ways to increase the number of students enrolling in financial planning degrees. Financial planning is also a great option for those people looking for a career change, who bring knowledge, experience and gravitas to the profession.”