Overly complex reforms don’t help consumers and only make financial advice more expensive and difficult to access, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) has warned.

CEO Dante De Gori says there is a direct relationship between the rising cost of regulation, time constraints on financial planners and the ability of people to access advice.

The FPA has called for improvements to a number of legislative proposals flowing from the Hayne royal commission as members highlight that the cost of regulation is the main challenge they are dealing with.

On average, FPA members charge $2671 to prepare a statement of advice for new clients, up from $2435 in 2018, and 41.4% say reducing the cost of providing advice would be a major challenge.

“These figures provide an important context to our submissions to Treasury,” Mr De Gori said.

“While we broadly agree with the draft legislation on the royal commission recommendations, we do have real concerns for both the profession and consumers who we are seeking to serve.”

The submission calls for changes to proposed ongoing fee arrangements, seeks a less complex process for breach reporting and opposes plans to stop people paying for financial advice from a MySuper account.

Mr De Gori says the proposal would disadvantage people who use the arrangement to access affordable advice in areas such as superannuation, insurance needs and retirement planning.

It also says a compulsory reference checking scheme should be extended beyond financial planners to managerial and supervisory roles, including directors and responsible managers, ensuring “bad apples” don’t have continuing influence.

“There is a risk that those who don’t provide financial planning services but have influence over the financial planning process can move freely around the sector,” Mr De Gori said. “To prevent this from happening, the FPA is recommending that reference checking is broadened.”