The ban on life insurance commission within superannuation is now proposed to start on July 1, 2013.

The change in the implementation date was revealed in a Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) update by Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) CEO Richard Klipin.

But the association is continuing its fight against the proposal along with its opposition to the opt-in plan under FOFA.

“We see the opt-in proposal as a move to introduce one-year contracts with a client by stealth,” he told an AFA breakfast in Melbourne last week.

“We will continue to fight anything that distorts advisers from their role in offering advice to clients.”

Mr Klipin says the soft dollar limit of $300 an event is “reasonable”.

Now the Federal Government is preparing the FOFA legislation, he says there is a certain amount of “horse-trading” being undertaken as industry bodies work for the best outcome for their members.

“We have to get this debate out into the public,” he said. “It has become a political debate and we say FOFA is bad for consumers and will drive up costs.”

Mr Klipin is also questioning who is pushing the reforms and queried a statement from the Australian Financial Integrity Network (Ausfin) supporting the reforms.

Ausfin consists of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Choice, the Financial Services Union and Industry Super Network.      

The statement, which seems to have been written by the Industry Super Network, supports all the proposed reforms on FOFA.

It dismisses criticism of the reforms as just the banks and insurance companies wanting to continue “any of the existing practices which provide lucrative payments to advisers who recommend their products”. 

“You have to ask who is empowering Ausfin to negotiate these reforms,” Mr Klipin said. “They seem to be acting on behalf of the Government.”

He says until the draft legislation is released, the AFA doesn’t know if there will be further battles to fight.

“There is a sense of anxiety among advisers,” he said. “But we have to play this smart and argue our case intelligently to make politicians understand what FOFA will do to advisers’ businesses.”