ASIC's Shadow Shopping Survey

Tony Negline

SNAFU means - "Situation Normal All Fouled Up"

You will have all heard about the recently released ASIC document on its latest Shadow Shopping field research.

It's not often that you hear of Government bodies asking people to report back on their experiences with a profession or trade. I wonder how many people in the financial planning industry are embarrassed about this fact.

I found two points extremely interesting. Firstly, the small number of plans which were deemed to have acceptable quality. Secondly, the fact that clients who had received poor quality advice thought their adviser had done a good job.

The obvious conclusion here is that advisers are really good at building client rapport but not so good at the delivery aspect. Are they the opposite of surgeons who have no bedside manner but are magicians at medical diagnosis and cure?

In any case how would a client know what is or isn't good advice. The financial world is so complicated - tax, structures, investments, Centrelink, blah blah blah - that I'd be surprised if anyone is across all relevant areas.

The ASIC report makes it quite clear that the biggest problem remains the way financial advisers are remunerated.

Until this is accepted and acted upon by the industry itself nothing substantial will change.

Version 6.0 of my SMSF book is now available.

You can see all the changes that have been made between Version 5.1 and 6.0 (the latest edition).

You can look at the contents page at the following link: http://www.atcbiz.com.au/r.php?r=0mjd6ne

For details of the changes made from version 5 to version 6 visit: http://www.atcbiz.com.au/r.php?r=d5xcpch

As you'll see from the list there have been many changes.

Two purchase options are available - once only subscription - $55 inc GST - or an annual subscription will gives you access to all the updates made throughout the year ($120 inc GST). The book can be purchased at the following link: http://www.atcbiz.com.au/r.php?r=5a4agqb

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