An ongoing Joint Associations Working Group (JAWG), comprising representatives of key financial services industry and financial advice professional associations, prepared this submission for the Quality of Advice Review (Review). The JAWG recommends the Quality of Advice Review focus on these key themes and embed them into the regulatory landscape, to overcome the accessibility and affordability issues impacting the provision of quality financial advice for consumers, customers and clients.

As noted in FINSIA’s 4 February 2022 submission as part of the development of the Terms of Reference for this Review, we believe that this process represents an important opportunity to identify and acknowledge the benefits of professionalism, alongside the equally important roles of professional education and standards, in addition to the role of professional bodies.

In our view, there is considerable merit in exploring how the regulatory model of oversight for financial advisers can be evolved in a way that seeks to mirror other existing regulatory oversight models which currently exist in respect of other professionals within our market. Perhaps the most relevant, and most prominent, model worth considering is that which currently exists within the accounting profession in Australia.