Who's the boss?

Glad I'm with Synchron. They're really active in sticking up for their adviser and criticising this proposal. In fact, Don Trapnell will be speaking at the AFA forum next tuesday 12th Sept in Sydney. All advisers who disagree with the proposal should put their money where their mouth is and go! Details of the event at http://www.moneymanagement.com...

Totally agree with this editorial. I suspect the angry reaction from advisers to the FSC proposal is the culmination of years of being sidelined. (Not to mention being left holding the bag one time too many.) We're constantly hearing from the dealer groups, insurers, super funds, fund managers and everybody else in this industry how 'important' we are to their business. Yet every time a new policy is announced, a new product is launched, or a new initiative raises its head, it seems abundantly clear that what we think was barely even considered. It's rather galling that we're seen as an impediment to the achievement of these different - and to the client, irrelevant - agendas. I think many planners are starting to realise that we're the bedrock of this industry, and that we shouldn't have to put up with the constant slights implied by the many hangers-on skimming money out of both our pockets, and those of our clients. And that's before we get into the utter, mindless irrelevancy of the dealer group model.

Agree with Meike. Haven't heard many other dealer group principals being as vocal as Don. This churning things is a storm in a teacup - there simply is no basis for the matter even to become an issue.

Sounds like the institutionally owned dealer groups have gone silent on this one, no conflict of interest there I am sure! I think we can see that Synchron is one of the few independent dealer groups left and thank goodness Don has had the guts to say it how it is. Lets call it what it really is, a group of insurers limiting the methods of distribution, sounds like we have a trading block, anti competitive and borderline collusion. A 3 year callback period will act as a barrier to new businesses who will no longer be able to step into the IFA risk specialist market. Ultimately the consumer will lose out. FSC = Policy for my mates SAY NO TO BROGDEN!~