It rests on the financial planner or broker to provide you with Statement of Advice along with the recommendations, for coverage of your insurance. Under the Financial Services Reform Act (FSR), failure in the provisions of this document is a violation.
It is likely that some companies intentionally avoid provision of the Statement of Advice with the reason that the provision of the Advice is only general which clearly indicates evading the onus on the information provided by them.
If the information sought for by you is on insurance only, the best thing would be to provide a Statement of Advice which means that this advice is restricted only to the quotes of insurance. This compliance is a must under FSR.
A full Statement of Advice provided by the Financial Planners includes coverage of your complete financial recommendations and status. But, in case you wish to seek insurance recommendations only, then a restricted Statement of Advice is compliant.
You should ensure that you are handling with a compliant organization only, and the issues that are to be listed in the document are incorporated in the Statement of Advice. It is mandatory that somewhere in the starting of the document, the words “Statement of Advice”, the name of the insurance company that has recommended and premiums to be paid, the document generally provides two options for the coverage, the amount of commission to be paid in case you proceed with, should be disclosed.
In the recent years, commission and the structures of commission have attracted the public eye which only for the reason that the Client should be divulged. The planner or broker should have undergone thorough education before being issued with a license. This license will be held either through the dealer or directly with ASIC. To run this type of business, the costs will be abnormally high because of the software expenses, ongoing requirements of training and also due to Professional Indemnity Insurance.
A good amount of work is involved in getting your application completed; the processing time can be very extensive, based on the insurance company’s requirements. But, above all, you must be well aware of the life insurance regulations in order to keep away from legal troubles. And, remember that Statement of Advice is a must have; so don’t proceed blindly without ensuring that it is indeed present within the set of legal documents that are going to be processed.