Professional Planner editor Matt Smith speaks with ASIC s Leah Sciacca
ASIC has defended the 30 per cent projected adviser levy increase, with acting senior executive leader for financial advisers Leah Sciacca detailing some of the enforcement, surveillance and project work behind the costings at the
Professional Planner Best Practice Forum Tuesday afternoon.
The projected increase in the levy was top of the agenda for the session, with Sciacca saying the regulator “recognises, obviously” that the $3,138 estimate of the graduated component is an increase on the actual $2,426 charged last year.
Sciacca – herself is a former financial adviser who has been at ASIC for 11 years but only in her current role “for a few weeks” – said she could understand, “from an adviser’s perspective” how they would feel seeing the cost increase, “particularly if they feel as though there’s no regulatory efforts directed specifically towards them”.