ASIC's fees and costs disclosure report released

In November 2017, ASIC commissioned an external report into fees and costs disclosure, with the recently released report offering recommendations on changes. 

Report author Darren McShane recommends modifications to the current system that include how fee and cost information is presented to consumers, and which parts of this information should be included in these disclosure documents. ASIC is to release a consultation paper with its responses to the report and the issues raised to get industry feedback. 

McShane's recommendations include: 

• ASIC should undertake a feasibility study to see if someone could provide a fee and cost extraction service from product disclosure statements (PDSs) so consumers could do cost and fee comparisons easily. 
• Fee and cost information should be made consistent across providers in PDSs with the use of fee templates, separating out fees that are ongoing from fees that are member-initiated. 
• Specific line edits for the fee template to make it clearer and easier to read. 

Download the full report: Review of ASIC Regulatory Guide 97: Disclosing fees and costs in PDSs and periodic statements