Simon Hoyle

The launch of a national program to support advisers on structured giving addresses four major reasons they say they stay quiet: a lack of training, fear of the client's reaction, uncertainty about their best interests duty, and the hit to their own fee base.

Advice licensees and advice firms hold client data valuable enough to make every business a target. The 2026 Professional Planner Licensee Summit heard that the only way to know a cyber-security policy is working is to verify the controls in real time, and that industry-wide standards are a must.

On the face of it, she looked like the model adviser. She was respected by her peers, her advice was good, she regularly won awards, and her clients loved her. Then she started pre-charging clients fees for service, took the money, spent it, and disappeared. That disappearance was ultimately how Count found her.

A standoff between platforms and advice businesses over who controls client data is holding back productivity gains that could transform the economics of advice. The Professional Planner Licensee Summit heard that platforms are sitting on client data that isn't theirs to keep and the industry can't reach its productivity potential until it changes.

Suspensions and redemption queues ‘speed bumps’ on private credit road: Blue Owl

The prudential regulator is preparing to release a report looking closely at the governance of superannuation platforms, how products are added and removed, and the role of researchers in making those decisions. The review comes in the wake of the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian managed investment schemes and the prudential regulator has identified some “very concerning” issues.

For years the regulators have urged super funds to move faster to meet Retirement Income Covenant obligations. But Simon Hoyle writes that research from Conexus Financial and CoreData shows how a continued lack of urgency has translated into poor preparedness for and satisfaction with retirement among super fund members.

Four and a half years after unveiling its “Advice 2.0” strategy and a new technology platform to improve adviser efficiency and productivity, Insignia Financial is facing significant new investment to either upgrade its existing tech or migrate to something new.

In one of his final speeches to industry, Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones has told the Professional Planner Advice Policy Summit he wants to smoothen entry into the financial advice profession to anyone holding a bachelor’s degree in any discipline, with a “minimum study requirement” in financial concepts such as finance, economics or accounting.

The Albanese Government has scrapped the requirement that advisers must register individually with ASIC from 1 July next year. Although unaware of the announcement coming, ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland says the move isn’t surprising, and he praised licensees for compliance with stage one of the requirements.