The National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) has pressed for changes to make it easier to provide personal advice to clients at an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) roundtable.

ASIC hosted the roundtable, attended by a number of financial services industry associations, following release of a consultation paper on challenges in making personal advice more accessible and affordable.

The personal advice model has mostly targeted financial planning and investments, retirement and superannuation, but NIBA says it is also important in general insurance.

“Clients must be given good advice which they can trust and rely on, but insurance brokers and other financial advisers must also be able to do this in a cost efficient and viable manner,” CEO Dallas Booth said.

At the roundtable there was general agreement that personal advice should concentrate on information clients are keen to hear about, without being burdened by the excessive background information, which makes Statements of Advice complex and difficult to understand, Mr Booth says.

“The need to keep mandatory information to that which is critical to help clients make good decisions was also stressed,” he said.