When the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) final report was handed to the government in December 2022, its purpose was clearly stated – “to ensure Australians have access to high quality, accessible and affordable financial advice”. Yet 18 months later, advice is still beyond the financial reach of many consumers, including, it would seem, many aspiring and existing self-managed super fund (SMSF) trustees.

Although concrete moves have been taken to implement some important recommendations flowing from the review, such as removing the ‘safe harbour’ steps and more support for the provision of scaled advice to clients, addressing the rising cost of advice has not been one of them.