The Government has experienced more delays with its Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) bill.

It was referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services by the Senate in mid-October, which says it won’t issue its report on the bill until February 29.

After being quietly introduced into the House of Representatives earlier last month, the bill has been widely criticised by the industry for its controversial “opt-in” proposal, which will require financial advisers to have clients renew their service contracts every two years while also providing them with a fee disclosure statement.

There are still two further FOFA bills to come and the Government is remaining vague about when they will be introduced into Parliament.

These are expected to cover advisers providing their services in the “best interests” of clients and accountants’ exemption from being licensed to provide financial advice.

With the joint committee’s report now scheduled for next year, the financial services sector is becoming seriously concerned about the time left to implement any changes.

Most companies spoken to by insuranceNEWS.com.au believe the implementation date of July 1 next year will have to be delayed because it will take at least six months to change computer systems and operations manuals.

Opposition financial services spokesman Mathias Cormann said recently he doesn’t expect the legislation to be passed until the autumn session next year.

Financial services companies are saying this will only leave a couple of months to implement the changes. Most say this will be impossible.

Organisations wanting to make a submission to the joint committee on the bill have until November 25.