Treasury has published an Issues Paper to assist the Quality of Financial Advice Review’s consultation on how the regulatory framework could better enable the provision of high quality, accessible and affordable financial advice for retail clients.

The Term of Reference require the Review to investigate, amongst other things, how to simplify documentation and disclosure requirements so that consumers are presented with clear and concise information without unnecessary complexity.

The Review will not make recommendations on:
1 The professional standards for financial advisers;

2 The new disciplinary and registration systems for advisers (Royal Commission Recommendation 2.10), the reference checking and information sharing protocol (Royal Commission Recommendation 2.7), the obligation on licensees to report serious compliance concerns (Royal Commission Recommendation 2.8) and to take steps when they detect an adviser has engaged in misconduct (Royal Commission Recommendation 2.9);

3 Changes to the definitions of ‘retail client’, ‘wholesale client’, and ‘sophisticated investor’, including the income and asset thresholds;

4 Financial services redress arrangements; or

5 The application of taxation and privacy laws to financial advice.

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