On 29 August 2022, Treasury released a consultation paper by the Quality of Advice Review. MinterEllison made a submission to the consultation paper on 23 September 2022 which supports:

• reforming the framework applying to financial product advice in order to make the provision of this advice more accessible and affordable; and
• reducing the regulatory burden of disclosure requirements on personal advice licensees.

The regulatory framework for financial product advice is unnecessarily complex and would benefit from reform. This applies to both the duties and the prescriptive disclosure requirements that currently apply when giving personal advice. There is significant benefit in having a simplified framework that promotes the provision of quality financial product advice to consumers.

A simplified yet robust advice framework has the potential to make financial product advice more accessible and affordable while better catering to the wishes of consumers.

MinterEllison's full submission outlines in further detail our:

• support for the reform of the 'best interests' duty, including recommendations to clarify and expand the definition of 'good advice' to allow for the provision of scoped advice;
• recommendations for the codification of a quality standard for general advice;
• recommendations to draw a distinction between advice provided by a product issuer in relation to their own products and personal advice provided by professional financial advisers; and
• support for the removal of prescriptive disclosure obligations applying to licensees in the provision of personal financial product advice.

Please contact our specialists if you have any questions about our submission, or wish to stay in touch and track progress on the Quality of Advice Review.