The CEO of the AIOFP, Peter Johnston, shares their 10 Commandments

Hi, we have 2 important dinners at the Canberra Conference that should make a difference to our industry, this is why we are in the ‘unfashionable’ Canberra for our event [and not QLD].

With the USA TRUMP victory and the left-wing Anthony Albanese Government under considerable political pressure thanks to many ‘home goals’, the next federal election will be very close – a great outcome for the Advice community and consumers.

This environment provides the perfect opportunity to present our ‘10 Commandments’ wish list of policy adjustments/amendments to all sides of politics and assess who will support our position. This is the most opportune time in the political cycle that ‘subtle’ intimidation has the best chance of success.

On Monday night November 25^th at the Parliament House dinner, we will have around 10 Politicians attending including Bert van Manen, Gerard Rennick, Warren Entsch and Aaron Violi. We are expecting another 5 Politicians to confirm later this week.

Bert van Manen will speak about his Private Members Bill but the primary objective is to educate all Politicians on why the cost of Advice is too high and what can be done to reduce it. Technical expert Lionel Rodrigues, member Steve Blizard and I will contribute to the discussion.

Our objective is to get the Politicians to then pressure their ‘head office’ to support our position, we hope they will conclude that they want the Advice community and their clients with them rather than against them.

The Tuesday November 26^th night Gala dinner will be a first time where Minister Jones and Shadow Howarth will be speaking at the same function, the Shadow at 7.15pm and the Minister at 8.30pm. Each will get our below wish list of policy adjustments/outcomes to comment on during their presentation.

We will then seek Members views on who we will support leading into the election at 12 noon on Wednesday November 27^th.

We have increased our AIOFP ‘High 5’ demands to the ‘AIOFP 10 COMMANDMENTS’ we want addressed, they are:

1. Remove DIXON out of the CSLR Compensation process.
2. Eliminate the ASIC Adviser Levy.
3. Eliminate annual fee Consent Forms.
4. Eliminate Client annual Opt – in forms.
5. Return Risk market structure back to pre LIF conditions.
6. Reject the Division 296 Legislation. 
7. Reinstate RITC conditions.
8. Advice to become Tax Deductible for consumers.
9. SOA rationalisation
10. 10.Recognising the professional judgement of Advisers.

The Minister and Shadow will be asked to provide a simple YES or NO response to each of the 10 demands which will allow us to establish a ‘score card outcome’ to determine who we will support.

We encourage you to share this email with your client base to keep them informed on how they can assist to reduce the cost of advice.

Make no mistake about it, all sides of politics have commenced their election campaign, and we need to exploit the opportunity to protect consumers and our profession going forward, or wait for another 3 years to get listened to.