Financial advisers slam ‘harsh’ education standards, exams (AFR 31/07/18)
The advice industry has been given plenty of opportunity to self-regulate and develop as a true profession. However, many of the industry bodies in the financial advice sector have acted like trade unions, representing the interests of their members before clients and acting on their own as individual bodies with different sets of interests. They have not spoken with one voice. As such these bodies lost the opportunity to speak as one industry and self-regulate
Change is being demanded by the public, regulators and government and there is a drive to deliver a homogenous and well regulated industry where the interests of clients are paramount.
Critics of greater regulation argue that you cannot legislate for ethics or trust. The fact that the correct balance between law, regulation and trust has not been achieved is why a line is now being forced on our industry.