The financial services industry needs to remove barriers to the provision of superannuation advice, says Superannuation Minister Nick Sherry.

Speaking at last week’s Institute of Actuaries financial services forum in Melbourne, Senator Sherry said the Financial Services Working Group is addressing the regulatory hurdles preventing consumers accessing effective “within product” or “intra-product” advice.

But he says financial advisers also need to improve their internal systems. “Our initial findings indicate some hurdles are not regulatory,” Senator Sherry said. “This demonstrates there is also a job for industry in ensuring they are best placed to provide this advice.”

Senator Sherry also set the industry a “Burnie Pub Test” on documentation, saying product disclosure statements need to be readable and easily understood by the average consumer.

“I consider a financial product disclosure document to be effective if it can be easily understood by the average person, in the average pub, in an average community, like the city of Burnie in my home state of Tasmania.”