The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services has published its Report on its review of the Corporations Amendment (Future of Financial Advice) Bill 2011 and Corporations Amendment (Further Future of Financial Advice Measures) Bill 2011.

Background: FOFA Part 1, FOFA Part 2.

While the report recommends clarification of some issues it does not recommend deferral of the proposed commencement date of 1 July 2012.

The report focusses on:

• Annual fee disclosure and the opt-in obligations
• The statutory ‘best interests’ duty for financial advisers
• Bans on conflicted remuneration
• Volume based fees and anti-avoidance provisions and soft-dollar exceptions
• Carve-outs: basic banking, stockbroking and the timeshare industry
• The projected impact of the FOFA reforms on the financial advice industry