Now - Treasury is conducting a national review to try to simplify the system and improve accessibility.
The language used in financial advice can often be difficult to understand for anyone - let alone those for whom English isn't their first language.
A University of Newcastle report found one third of all Australians are financially illiterate, meaning they lack the ability to understand and use various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing.
AMES Australia provides English training, employment services, community engagement and settlement support to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Here's its CEO Cath Scarth:
"The financial system in Australia is a complex one. If you think about the range of products - super, mortgage, loan, store loans, higher purchase, payday lending - it's an incredibly complex financial system that we have to navigate. Add to that language barriers and people's experience before they arrived here being very different."
The chair of the review Michelle Levy is pushing for an overhaul of the definitions of advice across the whole sector.
"I've gone into this review wanting to assist consumers to get access to financial advice. I have not done that with a view to getting poorer financial advice, it's all about getting them more financial advice. And when I think about what is it we want financial advice to be we want it to be simple and good advice. My proposal is not at all intended to weaken existing consumer protections but rather focus the attention of the provider of the advice on what it is that the consumer wants."
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