Fee-for-service 
The financial planning industry and specifically the issue of the most appropriate remuneration model continues to retain a high media profile. The Institute has been on the record recently defending its position regarding fee-for-service remuneration.  
 
Podcast discussion 
Listen to a short interview about fee-for-service with the Institute's Head of Financial Planning & Superannuation, Hugh Elvy. 
 
Institute paper on fee-based remuneration 
In 2007, the Institute published a thought leadership paper entitled Reinventing financial planning. At the time it was critically received by many key industry stakeholders but there were also some in the industry who did not support the Institute’s position. The paper's central proposition called for a consistent form of fee-based remuneration. The Institute has recently written a letter to the editor of the Australian Financial Review reaffirming its commitment to this position.  
 
‘To ensure a sustainable long-term future for financial planners, we believe it necessary for the financial planning industry to collectively recognise the need to remove remuneration models, which are based on percentages, and replace them with genuine fee-for-service arrangements that have no connection with products or investable funds,’ said Hugh Elvy, Head of Superannuation and Financial Planning at the Institute.  
 
Mr Elvy said that recently he has been encouraged when both the Financial Planning Association and the Investment and Financial Services Association reviewed their positions on remuneration. The Institute will continue to work with government and the industry on education and guidance to ensure the industry adoption of fee-for-service remuneration models is made a reality. 
 
Agribusiness inquiry 
The collapses of agribusiness giants Timbercorp and Great Southern has brought both financial planners and accountants to the forefront.  
 
Following the agribusiness collapses, the government announced an additional inquiry to the Parliamentary Joint Committee inquiry into financial products and services, a review specifically addressing the issue of agribusiness managed investment schemes. The Institute has provided a submission to this inquiry, examining the following areas in detail:

• The impact and consequences of managed investment schemes on rural and regional Australia
• The overall structure and operations of the industry including business models and taxation implications
• The distribution of the managed investment scheme products and the regulatory environment of management investment schemes.

• The Institute: fee-for-service discussion with the Institute's Head of Financial Planning & Superannuation, Hugh Elvy
• The Institute: Reinventing financial planning
• The Institute: inquiry into Agribusiness Managed Investment Schemes – Institute submission