No storm in a tea cup for seniors when it comes to financial matters

Today is the fifth anniversary of Storm Financial collapse, which saw the retirement savings of many Australians wiped out.

Living in Townsville at the time of Storm’s collapse, I was disturbed to witness the financial devastation it caused to many people I knew. Its effects are still being felt up in North Queensland and around the country.

In a timely move earlier this week, the Abbott government slammed the breaks on a key element of its controversial reforms to the financial advice industry, in a bid to head off a collision with seniors, consumers and Industry Super lobby.

The freeze was reported by the Australian Financial Review yesterday, with Senator Mathias Cormann, who is now responsible for the changes to Labor’s Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) laws, wanting more time to respond to the growing criticism from stakeholders, including seniors organisations.

National Seniors Australia Chief Executive Michael O’Neill raised objections in Canberra earlier this week after receiving legal advice that plans to rollback the reforms, including re-introducing sales commissions for financial planners, will weaken consumer protection.

Mr O’Neill argued that the proposed changes would disadvantage thousands of seniors, especially the one that removed a requirement for financial advisers to put their clients’ interests first.

There is no room for error when it comes to regulating the financial advice industry. It needs to be fully transparent and it needs to represent the interests of the customers 100 per cent.

Not only should these reforms have been stalled, they should be dropped.

Were you affected by the Storm Financial collapse? Have you ever sought the services of a financial advisor? Protect your financial future and join the conversation to have the reforms dropped…