Cbus advice head starts dealer group support institute

After 16 years with Cbus, including nearly seven as head of advice and retirement, Greg Harper has launched a new consulting firm to help dealer groups and super funds deliver better advice.

The firm, Financial advice Services Institute (FASI), was launched in November of 2019.

According to the FASI website, they will work with superannuation funds, dealer groups, professional associations, regulatory bodies, and other stakeholders to develop better advice models.

In comments to Financial Standard, Harper says there are two main problems for financial advice to solve.

The first is for organisations to move away from conflicted performance measures, such as by sales or FUM, while acknowledging the need for commercial success. The second is for industry funds to deliver personal advice to members without cross-subsidising it from the broader membership base.

"It is widely known that there is a lack of expertise in superannuation funds for financial advice," Harper said.

"The way many superannuation funds have done it is that they have used members' pooled money to subsidise the cost of non-intrafund advice.

"The law clearly says that members' money can't be used for advice other than intra-fund advice and it could be treated as fees for no service but ASIC hasn't held them to account for it so far," he said.

Reporting from Kanika Sood at Financial Standard contributed to this story.