He spoke to Newpark in a recorded video interview.

In it, he said that dealer groups were fundamental to the adviser world.

In Australia, they played a key role in education and helping advisers keep on top of their compliance requirements, he said.

There have been concerns that dealer groups that rely on overrides for income may suffer as insurers move – as in Partners Life’s case – to pay these direct to the adviser rather than a group.

AIA has introduced a new AIA Living commission structure last year without any production or volume-related bonuses. Asteron Life also removed its production bonus.

But Tremethick said groups’ position should strengthen with changing regulation.

“Having worked as an adviser my skillset is not necessarily compliance,” he said.

Advisers, while able to run compliant businesses, were skilled at going out and meeting clients.

They might not want to take the responsibility of meeting their new compliance requirements, he said, and might prefer to have a partner to do it for them.

He said dealer groups also played an important role in helping communicate messages from insurers to advisers.

“The strength of quality dealer groups should grow in the short to medium-term.”

He said while there had been recent discussion of adviser remuneration models, and much of that would be up to the regulator to decide, the industry should acknowledge that no one owned a client.

“What clients value is relationships,” he said. That was always with the adviser.

But he said advisers should expect there would be more of a requirement in future to demonstrate they were providing an ongoing service, to justify the continuing remuneration they received.