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In the Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA’s) response to the government’s first batch of Quality of Advice Review (QAR) reforms, chief executive Sarah Abood says the FAAA’s key concern is the government’s decision to not mandate a standardised fee consent form.  “The removal of the requirement to produce a Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) is welcome, although advisers with clients on annual agreements are already not needing to produce them. As a result, fee consent standardisation is the key reform in this first batch of “Stream 1” draft legislation with the potential to achieve meaningful productivity gains. This is a

The Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) says the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) new draft determination (TD 2023/D4) is a welcome development in clarifying the rules around deductibility of financial advice fees. The FAAA has worked closely with Tangelo Advice Consulting and industry bodies in consultation with the ATO regarding updating Tax Determination 95/60. Sarah Abood, CEO of the FAAA, says the FAAA is broadly pleased with the revised guidance, and will provide further feedback as part of the public consultation process. “This revised guidance is sensible and welcome. The existing Tax Determination is almost 30 years old, and a

Today, the Minister for Financial Services announced his response to the remaining streams of the Quality of Advice review recommendations.  “There is little detail available at this stage, but on the face of it we are deeply concerned at the direction of these announcements,” says Sarah Abood, CEO of the FAAA.   “Our members fear this could be winding the clock back five years on our profession. It appears to invalidate the hard work and pain that has been involved in creating financial advice as a profession and winning the trust of consumers.  “Specifically, the Minister has announced that any financial

The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) has announced the 2023 winners of the inaugural FAAA Awards across six professional categories. They are: FAAA CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® of the Year Award: Martin McGrath CFP® of Financial Edge Group in NSW FAAA Professional Practice of the Year Award (sponsored by Cbus Super): Boutique Advisers from Western Australia FAAA Adviser of the Year (sponsored by Zurich): Sacha Burchgart from Burcheart in NSW FAAA Inspire Women – Excellence in Advice Award (sponsored by TAL): Cara Williams from Sufficient Funds in Queensland FAAA Gen Next Rising Star of the Year: Jayden Adams from Adams Financial

Future2 Foundation has today announced the 15 recipients of its annual ‘Make the Difference’ grants program in a bid to support Australians experiencing social, financial, or physical hardship. Future2 awarded $148,500 in grants to 15 grassroots, community programs supporting Australians in need. The 2023 ‘Make the Difference’ grants program attracted a record number of over 100 applications after it expanded the criteria to welcome applications for programs that support Australians of any age rather than restricting support to individuals between the ages of 12 and 25. Julie Berry, Chair of Future2 commented, “We were blown away by the applications this

The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) has launched its new Career Centre, a dedicated resource that has been designed to benefit employees, job seekers and career changers in the financial advice profession.   Through the portal, employers can promote jobs directly to financial advice professionals to find the most suitable candidates for vacant positions. Those that are FAAA members can receive significant discounts on already competitive pricing to advertise job vacancies.   The portal will allow job seekers to highlight their experience and qualifications to recruiters, browse financial advice-focused roles, sign up for email alerts when new positions are advertised, or upload

From Sarah Abood, CEO of the FAAA “The FAAA welcomes the release of the draft legislation on the first tranche of recommendations from the Quality of Advice Review. “We have been strong advocates for sensible measures from the Review that will help advisers deliver more affordable and effective advice for Australians. “We are very pleased that the recommendation (Recommendation 8) on ongoing fee arrangements and consent requirements is to be included in the draft legislation.  This recommendation is to consolidate ongoing fee consent requirements to a single standard “consent form”. Delivering on this recommendation will save many hours of frustrating,

The Women in Financial Planning Mentoring Program has been deemed an outstanding success by the mentors and mentees who participated in the initiative, according to the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA).  Run by the FAAA through a $2.2 million grant from the Office for Women in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the program aimed to support women in financial planning to further their careers by matching eligible women in the financial advice profession seeking guidance and support with more experienced female members.  The first program paired 96 mentors and mentees from February to August 2022, while the

The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) has named Andrew Dickinson of Strategic Wealth as the winner of the Gwen Fletcher Memorial Award for semester two of 2023.  Named in honour of the late ‘First Lady of Financial Planning’, the award goes to the highest performing student in the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Certification Unit (CFP C) in each semester and shows demonstrable dedication to providing high-quality financial advice.  Mr Dickinson is a financial adviser and partner at Strategic Wealth, based in Melbourne. He has been at the firm since 2017 and has almost seven years’ experience in financial advice. Mr Dickinson

The FAAA has lauded the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, for engaging with 230 advisers in a series of open industry events co-hosted by seven associations from the Joint Associations Working Group (JAWG), culminating in a final briefing in the nation’s capital. Coming together to host the final Canberra event alongside the FAAA were the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), CPA Australia (CPA), the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) and the SMSF Association (SMSFA). Other events were co-ordinated with the FSC and SIAA. During the series of seven events, held across Australia between