THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Well, this is fun. Just when you thought it couldn't really get any worse on the platforms front, ASIC Report 833 came out.
We had a really interesting discussion about this yesterday with the Mayflower team about what constitutes reasonable (in terms of fees specifically) and the tension between what can be justified on a case-by-case basis vs. what things look like on the front page of the newspaper.
Sadly, a lot of what can be justified on a case-by-case basis does not look good on the front page of the newspaper.
For me, this comes down to how much individual leeway the platform should offer versus protection for the majority of members. In the past, I would have always said that as long as things can be sorted out on a case-by-case basis, then they're okay, but these days I'm leaning more towards intervention.
There are a few reasons for this, not the least of which is that there is just so much going on with legislation changes etc. that it just gets harder and harder to handle edge cases without the wheels falling off somewhere.
P.S. If you work for an industry fund and you're reading this thinking, "Thank God that doesn't apply to me," I would actually read the sections about advice fees and advisor due diligence very carefully because they absolutely will apply to industry funds as well at some point soon.
