This email has gone to every Federal Politician to remind them of the FASEA/LIF legislative disaster facing around 1,000 Advisers on October 1st.
Dear Parliamentarian, we wish to alert you to an event that has caused the suicide deaths of 29 people over the past 5 years and we are fearful this will cause more by OCTOBER 1st.
Please be aware of the following –
- The Financial Adviser Standards & Ethics Authority [FASEA] Legislation was a theoretically sound strategy, but it was used mischievously and cruelly by the Liberal Party to please their Institutional backers to remove Financial Advisers [Advisers] from the financial services landscape in favour of Digital Advice.
- In recent times we have met with past senior FASEA staff and Lawyers who helped draft the Legislation and the theme of ‘culling’ Advisers was clearly on their agenda, directed by the FASEA Board and ultimately sanctioned by the Ministers office.
- FASEA as an entity has been eliminated but the Legislation is cruelly still in place. A nefariously and perversely structured Exam format has been used to intimidate mainly mature Advisers who have not sat for Exams in decades. Many lack the IT skills or have physical imperfections to cope [ie eyesight], but they are very good at what they do, giving Advice to their clients.
- On OCTOBER 1st 2022 up to 1,000 mainly senior Advisers who are having difficulty passing an Exam format [whose format has never been seen before in the global Education universe] will face immediate extermination from the Advice industry unless they pass after their third attempt.
- Ambiguously framed questions within a Masters Level, 3 hour format where examiners have the flexibility to pass or fail students with no feedback on results, just a FAIL or PASS notification. There is little doubt this Exam was structured to ‘cull’ Advisers at the whim of the FASEA Board.
- A bizarre condition of the Exam is if the Adviser FAILED it twice [not once but twice….] before 1/1/2022, they could stay in the industry until 1/10/2022 and remain if they passed it before this date.
- Considering the sitting fee is $973 per Adviser per exam sitting, the question of commerciality comes into the discussion about failing Students.
- Over the past 3 years around 15,000 Advisers have left the industry, we cannot afford to lose any more. This does not take into account the 30,000 administration staff losing their jobs and 1,500,000 clients left orphaned without an Adviser.
- Another 1,000 Advisers being forced out translates into another 2,000 Administration jobs gone and 100,000 consumers orphaned based on 100 clients per adviser. There are widespread mental health issues within this cohort of Advisers and their families facing financial ruin. We can only hope there will be no further suicides.
This unfortunate situation originated from 3 Institutionally aligned Associations masquerading as ‘Adviser Associations’, backing the Minister then convincing Parliament that the FASEA and Life Insurance Framework [LIF] Legislation was in the best interests of Consumers and the Advice industry.
This has been an unmitigated disaster for ALL stakeholders, particularly Consumers who now either have no Adviser to assist them, paying triple for advice than 5 years ago and/or paying double for Insurance premiums.
Most Politicians did not understand our industry, the Legislation and the ramifications but voted ‘blindly’ in favor of it.
Our request going forward is to ensure that the Association you want advice from is ‘true to label’ to the information you are seeking. The financial services industry is very diverse with numerous self-interested factions pushing their own agenda.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information.
Regards.
Peter Johnston | Executive Director
Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals
Suite 1211, 1 Queens Road, Melbourne VIC 3004
P 1800 111 203, d 03 9863 7574, m 0418 857 621
www.aiofp.net.au | Download my business card
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