FSC not appropriate, say licensee heads

Financial advice licensees probably need their own representative organisation in circumstances where the Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) represents financial advisers and the Financial Services Council (FSC) represents product providers.

That was the bottom line of a financial advice licensee panel at Financial Newswire’s Platforms, Wraps and Advice Technology Conference in the Hunter Valley, with Infocus Wealth Management chief executive, Darren Steinhardt saying he believed there needed to be a divide between product providers and advice.

He said he believed the FSC’s constituency was largely made up of product providers.

While acknowledging that a number of large financial advice licensees were members of the FSC, Steinhardt said he believed it was not appropriate for his business because of the perception it might create.

At the same time, Clime Asset Management chief executive, Annick Donat said that while the creation of a licensee representative organisation was probably necessary, it needed to be understood that advice licenses sat within larger organisations.

AdviceIQ general manager, Paul Harding-Davis said that a licensee representative organisation was necessary but it was a role already been fulfilled by informal structures such as the Licensee Forum in which he was a participant.

He said he agreed with Steinhardt’s sentiment that the FSC was probably not an appropriate representative organisation for most licensees.