Treasury has announced a report indicating the future direction of the financial advisory sector: The Future of Financial Advice, Sen Chris Bowen, 26 April 2010 which aims to abolish commission based remuneration for financial advisers.
Sage Advisers’ clients should feel reassured to know that in all areas of proposed legislative and policy reform in relation to commissions (e.g. trailing commissions) payment structures, professional qualifications and regulations we are already compliant. Indeed, we are “ahead of the pack” in terms of our “fee for service” structure and our independence philosophy. We established our firm in the belief that a financial advisory firm in the 21st Century cannot operate under the commission based structure of remuneration with its inherent conflicts of interest.
We go further by benchmarking our portfolios against industry sector averages.
Sage Advisers welcomes the proposed government changes due for commencement in July 2012 based on what has been mooted to date. It will be interesting to see if the government has the courage to change the life and general insurance industry commission based structures as well?
