The joint Australian Consumers Association (ACA)/Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) survey of financial planners, which we reported on last week, will be officially revealed at a launch in Sydney today. 

The survey, which has found many alarming failures in financial planners’ organisation and methods, has sent the two major representative associations ­– the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) and the Financial Planning Association (FPA) – into a sudden shout of support for the Financial Services Reform Act. In a joint media statement last week, they called on the industry to “give the FSRA a fair go”.

We hadn’t noticed that anyone wasn’t, but obviously the FPA and IFSA are concerned about the backlash that may be coming as a result of the report. It will be launched in Sydney today by ACA Chair Louise Sylvan and Peter Kell, ASIC’s Executive Director of Consumer Protection. And it won’t be pretty.

The ACA has already circulated its survey findings in its magazine, Choice, in which it called for further reforms of financial planners’ methods and warned consumers to be wary about the planners’ advice.

Choice said some planners “put their own interests ahead of those of their clients” by providing generic plans with careless errors and insufficient detail. It said they also “recommend investments without justification, seemingly to earn the commissions”.

The prospect of even more reforms on top of the FSRA was enough to sting the FPA and IFSA into action. In a joint media statement last week, they said they see the FSRA as “critical to delivering better service to consumers”. Neither mentioned the ACA/ASIC report.

IFSA CEO Richard Gilbert said industry commentators were “fast to criticise” the FSRA’s effectiveness, but the two associations want it to be given “a fair go”. And FPA CEO Ken Breakspear says it is important for associations to take a leadership role in determining how the FSRA will operate in their organisation.

“We remain confident about the soundness of the FSRA regulatory framework and do not see the need for further major changes to our industry standards,” Mr Breakspear said.

In other words, give the FSRA a chance to show it can control financial planners’ excesses before using sword. The level of interest in the report that is shown by TV reports tonight and the newspapers may indicate the Government’s feelings on the subject.