Ann: Earnings and guidance update, page-121

Certainly you are right that financial planners will be able to talk about Annuities. But if you phone an industry super fund or el cheapo default super fund and pay a default $300 fee or whatever for advice, it will be less likely that the adviser will be motivated to shift a client to something new and different, even if it really does suit the client. They will on balance see their job as to maintain inertia as much as possible I expect.
 
Respectfully, you seem to have a warped perception of who the average buyer of CGF annuities is. 

If you read the FY18 Annual Report, you can see that the Life Book consists of approximately 75,000 annuities, for a total Present Value of 11.73bn$; it follows that the average size of a CGF annuity policy is over 150k$, which is a significant amount of money for the average Australian retiree.

Moreover, the context in which this capital allocation generally takes place is the transition between the savings and the retirement phase of a superannuation account; therefore, it is (in the majority of cases) a once-in-a-lifetime financial decision that we’re talking about.

Put the two things together (significant amount of money involved and once-in-a-lifetime decision), and you can appreciate that this is one of those instances where the consumer does generally actively seek the help of a financial adviser, and is happy to pay a premium for quality service as well. 

I really do not see how this is going to change as a consequence of the industry reforms you are referring to.

If it is (for the sake of illustration) the unsolicited hawking of some dodgy funeral insurance policy you’re talking about, then I can sympathise with your argument; annuities are something very different, though, and CGF is by far the largest and most reputable provider of annuity products in the Australian market.