ASIC noted concerns about Austplan’s ability to do all things necessary to ensure the advice provided by its representatives was compliant.
It said its surveillance found deficiencies in the financial services provided by a number of Austplan representatives, including their failure to act in the best interest of their clients in relation to establishing self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF).
As part of the cancellation, Austplan is required to comply with conditions such as maintaining its current professional indemnity insurance policy until the cancellation takes effect and its membership of Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) until all consumer complaints have been resolved, ASIC said.
Austplan will also have to submit the required financial statements with ASIC and retain all materials relating to personal advice provided by its representatives. ASIC said it is continuing to make enquiries in relation to the advice provided.
Further, Austplan also received client referrals from GM Homes, a building and mortgage business, which is not licensed to provide financial advice or any other financial service.
“AFS licensees have an obligation to ensure that their representatives are adequately trained and competent to provide financial services that are in their clients’ best interest,” said ASIC deputy chair Peter Kell.
“ASIC will take action where we see licensees not properly supervising their representatives.
“SMSFs are not right for everyone. We encourage consumers to think carefully about investing in property and do their research before they set up an SMSF.”
Unlicenced accountants probably don’t get a look-in with the ASIC bonus structure at present. Best for ASIC to leave Accountants alone – when a big scandal occurs, ASIC will then ask for more powers and funding. How sweet a gig does ASIC have?
Yep, that approach worked a treat with Storm.
Yep – Storm gave ASIC some relevance – if ASIC had prevented the Storm disaster then I suspect no bonuses for ASIC.
So it seems that ASIC actually is aware of the dangers of SMSFs. It seems they are also quite willing to take action against licensed advisers who inappropriately recommend them.
But they are unwilling to do anything about the biggest source of inappropriate SMSF advice by far – unlicensed accountants.
Yeah but when Accountants get caught providing unlicensed advice they just get banned from providing licensed advice… So they continue doing what they are doing. “I recommend you start a SMSF with you 50k super, you can worry about the investments later”