CA ANZ continues to advocate and support the professionalism of the financial advice industry. We support the CSLR concept as an important measure to ensure consumer protection and believe the CSLR is an important component of providing professional financial services. However, we do not support the CSLR in its current proposed form and would like to contribute to improvements.

CA ANZ is very concerned with the overwhelming recent increase of regulatory costs that are driving current advisers out of the advice space as they find the current climate not sustainable. This is a concerning trend, as increasing costs to provide advice are leading to inevitable increases in the cost of advice for clients at a time when more clients want and need access to affordable advice.

CA ANZ, however, remains of the view that the CSLR may be a necessary consideration to ensure that consumers who have received inappropriate advice are appropriately remediated and compensated where appropriate. Importantly, this includes the opportunity for redress in situations where the licensee responsible for the advice has become insolvent.