Can someone please stop this ride

From The Editor: Darin Tyson-Chan (Inaugural SMSF Association Trade Media Journalist of the Year)

Does anyone else get the feeling the financial planning industry is on a never-ending merry-go-round ride with the government? And does anyone else wonder when this seemingly endless circular process will end?

If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, let me refer you to two recent developments that highlight this continuing set of circumstances.

First is the Retirement Income Review report. What exactly did this really achieve? I know we were told it was basically just a fact-finding exercise regarding the operation of the current retirement incomes system, but at the end of the day what did the process uncover that we didn’t already know?

This is best illustrated by the report’s conclusion that “the system would benefit from a clear objective in order to guide future policy and provide a framework for assessing its performance”. Does this statement alone not make a farce of the review?

A call to have the objective of our superannuation system properly and officially defined was already included in the Financial System Inquiry and that was concluded in December 2014. Six years on and another review comes up with exactly the same finding.

Further, doesn’t his statement alone prove the whole process and its other findings are completely laughable? On the whole it was determined the system is in the main working well. How do you know a system is working well when you don’t even know what it is supposed to be achieving? It’s like parking a brand new car in your backyard and saying it works really well as a cubby house for your children. Granted it might satisfy that purpose, but that’s not what a motor vehicle is designed to do.

The second situation is worse still and is evidence this Groundhog Day situation has been going on for over a decade.

Submissions have recently been made to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) Consultation Paper 332, which is examining access to affordable advice. And you probably don’t even have to read on to know what I’m about to reference next.

Perhaps the Association of Financial Advisers summed it up best in its paper when calling for a reduction in the compliance obligations placed upon financial planners and a greater focus on the value and purpose of advice.

You’d be forgiven if you thought you’d heard this argument before because you’d be correct. This is a call that has been made over and over again for at least the past decade, but continues to fall on deaf ears. In fact I believe I could pull budget submissions and those made to other inquiries over this period and I swear you’d think you were reading the same document over and over again.

Unfortunately we hear the same excuses as to why nothing positive is ever done about these situations. They often revolve around the government having more pressing priorities.

But something needs to change here and I welcome the day it does. Unfortunately I’m not expecting this to happen anytime soon or anytime at all for that matter. So I suppose we all need to get used to the horse we chose and enjoy the carnival music of the ride for a little while longer.