The Senate Economics Legislation Committee has released a transcript from a public hearing held in Canberra on 22 May 2014 as part of its inquiry into the Corporations Amendment (Streamlining of Future of Financial Advice) Bill 2014. The Committee heard from a range of industry representatives, including Treasury, ASIC, Industry Super Australia, Financial Services Council, CHOICE, Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA), CPA Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia (ICAA) and Minter Ellison Lawyers, to name a few.
Broadly, the Bill is proposing to amend the FoFA legislation to implement the Government’s 2013 election commitments to remove the “catch-all” requirement from the best interests duty, remove the opt-in requirement, simplify the annual fee disclosure rules, exempt general advice from conflicted remuneration and revise the grandfathering provisions. The Committee has received 33 submissions, which are available on its website. The Committee is due to report on 16 June 2014.
[LTN 99, 26/5/14]