The Advisers Association (TAA) has urged the Federal Government to put up “guardrails” as it proceeds with expanding access to retirement advice and exploring new advice channels. 

The guardrails should be around who should be permitted to deliver personal financial advice, the extent of the advice they give, and the minimum education and qualifications they hold, the TAA says. 

“We have always said that Australians need greater access to advice, therefore we were generally supportive of introducing a ‘good advice’ duty under which non-relevant providers could offer personal advice,” TAA CEO Neil Macdonald said. 

“However, as we have also said, guardrails do need to be in place.” 

The Federal Government this month responded to the Quality of Advice Review final report, agreeing to take up “in full or in principle” 14 of the 22 proposals, including keeping commissions, permitting super funds to provide retirement advice and replacing the statement of advice (SOA) with a fit-for-purpose advice record. 

“We are pleased that the Government is looking to remove regulatory red tape, and particularly welcome that Statements of Advice may be replaced with an advice record that is more fit-for-purpose,” Mr Macdonald said. 

Replacing SOAs with advice records would lighten the load on financial advisers and make accessing professional advice more affordable for consumers. 

“SOAs are overly bureaucratic, not fit for purpose and offer little tangible benefit to consumers, who often do not even fully read them,” Mr Macdonald said.