The financial advice industry needs to engage in “open and frank dialogue” with regulators and consumers and work on its strategy for building the industry, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Commissioner Berna Collier said last week.

Professor Collier told an Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) members’ luncheon that she and ASIC Deputy Chairman Jeremy Cooper will write to the CEOs of IFSA and the Financial Planning Association (FPA) suggesting “a close partnership between ASIC and the industry”.

She says while the local advice industry is “probably better placed than many other advice industries globally”, there are “still problems in the overall quality of advice” available to consumers.

“The work that we have done recently shows that departures from legal standards are still too frequent.

“This is a problem for the industry, as well as ASIC, and it will not be solved by denying it or ignoring it. Let’s take those problems on and make a converted effort to solve them.”

Acknowledging the extensive work completed by the FPA and IFSA, Professor Collier said she wanted to make several statements to the industry. She says despite popular belief, ASIC is “not out to get the advice industry” and the regulator’s focus is on the industry’s outcomes, not its structure.

“The industry deserves credit for its increasing professionalism; however, there is room for improvement,” she said.