The Senate has passed the Corporations Amendment (Financial Advice Measures) Bill (formerly known as the Corporations Amendment (Streamlining of Future of Financial Advice) Bill 2014 with bipartisan support which essentially completes the FOFA process making some additional amendments to Part 7.7A (many amendments previously proposed in the original Bill e.g regarding the best interests duty have not been adopted).
As a result, the impact on insurance is fairly limited and we will prepare an update on where the current insurance related requirements that apply have been changed by the Bill.
In a Media Release from Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer, the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer MP on the Bill, it was noted that:
- “FOFA should now be considered settled and given time to work.”
- “The Turnbull Government is now focussed on improving the quality and accessibility of financial advice through a raft of other initiatives, as announced in the Government’s response to the Murray Financial System Inquiry on 20 October 2015.”
- “Legislation to establish a new framework for the professional, ethical and education standards of financial advisers will be introduced before July next year. These higher standards will place financial advice on a similar footing to other professions and, in doing so, increase consumer trust and confidence in the sector.”
- “The Government also considers that more needs to be done to make the issuers and distributors of financial products accountable for their offerings. We will be consulting extensively next year on the introduction of a product design and distribution obligation and a new product intervention power for ASIC”.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
More details are available at:
- ASIC Media Release
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