Regulation inhibiting advice
Advisers are so worried about breaking the rules that it is an impediment to customers accessing advice, says the former general manager of the PAA.
Tuesday, September 24th 2013, 6:56AM 4 Comments
Jenny Campbell has stepped down from her position after fighting breast cancer last year.
She said there was still a lot of work to be done in the regulatory area, and many members did not realise the extent of the work that went into keeping up with proposals and changes.
But she said it was vital that every consultation paper and meeting be dealt with because advisers were vulnerable to changes.
“There’s a strain between speaking out on behalf of advisers and maintaining a relationship with the regulator. It only take a stroke of the pen and the industry could be destroyed overnight, we’ve got to be so careful.”
But she said regulation had the opposite effect of what was intended because it was now harder to access advice.
“And the public still doesn’t have a good perception of advisers. They don’t understand the difference between non-aligend and bank advisers and I’m worried that bank and insurers are moving more and more towards direct sales, to the detriment of the public.”
She said advisers needed to keep promoting what they did, and work on getting good news stories out, to counteract things such as the Ross Asset Management fiasco.
“In some ways it’s quite exciting, there’s a huge opportunity. One of the biggest struggles is for the public to understand what we do and putting a value on the advice.”
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Comments from our readers
But regulation isn’t all bad. I particularly like the rule that says you can only advise on those areas where you have expertise. This is a great “get out of jail” card which I regularly play whenever I can’t be bothered advising on anything that isn’t specifically investment related. Previously I used to offer this advice for free so you know who loses from this rule, at least as far as I am concerned.
Regards
Brent Sheather
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