Govt releases final QOA report

The Government has today released the final report of the Quality of Advice Review.

This was seven weeks after it was handed to Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, on 16 December.

The report, which was 267 pages, contained 22 specific recommendations for the industry.

These covered:

• Personal advice;
• General advice;
• Relevant providers;
• Good Advice Duty;
• Statutory Best Interest Duty;
• Superannuation advice;
• Deduction of adviser fees from superannuation;
• Ongoing fee arrangements and consent requirements;
• Statement of Advice;
• Financial Services Guide;
• Consent requirements for wholesale clients;
• Design and Distribution Obligations (DDO);
• DDO reporting requirements;
• Benefits given to a client;
• Client-directed payments from superannuation funds;
• Removing exception for benefits given by clients for issues, sales or dealing in financial products;
• Removing the exception for the issue of financial products where advice has not been provided in the previous 12 months;
• Exception for agents or employees of Australian authorised deposit-taking institutions;
• Time-sharing schemes;
• Life insurance;
• General insurance; and
• Consumer credit insurance.

More to come