The Senate has passed the Corporations Amendment (Financial Advice Measures) Bill with bipartisan support, Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer, the Hon Kelly O'Dwyer MP said.
"The Bill includes an extension of the timeframe for advisers to send renewal opt-in notices and fee disclosure statements to retail clients from 30 to 60 days," Minister O'Dwyer said. "This should enable the industry to properly prepare and quality assure these documents and for consumers to make an assessment of the value of the advice services provided.
"FOFA should now be considered settled and given time to work.
"I'd like to thank Dr Jim Chalmers MP who assisted in finalising these amendments and allowing consideration of the Bill to happen this year.
"The Turnbull Government is now focussed on improving the quality and accessibility of financial advice through a raft of other initiatives, as announced in the Government's response to the Murray Financial System Inquiry on 20 October 2015.
"Legislation to establish a new framework for the professional, ethical and education standards of financial advisers will be introduced before July next year. These higher standards will place financial advice on a similar footing to other professions and, in doing so, increase consumer trust and confidence in the sector.
"The Government also considers that more needs to be done to make the issuers and distributors of financial products accountable for their offerings. We will be consulting extensively next year on the introduction of a product design and distribution obligation and a new product intervention power for ASIC," Minister O'Dwyer said.