The cancellation was effective from 21 November, and is a result of ASIC’s surveillance of Solar following concerns about licensee oversight, according to a statement.
The surveillance focused on the adequacy of Solar’s policies and procedures, and the quality of advice provided to clients.
ASIC found that Solar had failed to:
- manage conflicts of interest;
- ensure its representatives complied with financial services laws;
- properly monitor and supervise its representatives, including by failing to conduct audits; and
- adequately manage its internal dispute resolution process.
“As a result of ASIC’s surveillance findings, Solar appointed a liquidator on 30 October 2018. Solar’s sole director at the time was Ms Maria Cheer, who was also its founder and an authorised representative,” ASIC said.
“The cancellation of Solar’s AFS licence is part of ASIC’s ongoing efforts to improve standards across the financial service industry.”
Solar Financial Advisory had held its AFSL since 18 January 2013.
Anyone who has felt they have ever received a raw deal from ASIC should watch this documentary. It has been nominated for an Academy Award. “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.” Who does this remind you of?
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUiboO7bLg0&t=6s
Full movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkscvUEUnJA&t=671s
There’s a theme here….. the regulator going after the small fish…. picking a fight with the little guys while the big guys get away with murder.
The documentary is excellent. Interesting Abacus ended up winning their court case. This could be a good omen for Dover and any other small business which has been on the receiving end.
IFA- more details please! These types of brief accounts do nothing but create fear mongering in the advice community. Tell us exactly WHY they got banned not just some generalization of “did not comply with financial services law”
[quote=anon]what did Dover and Solar Financial do that was so much worse than the big4 and AMP. that cost them their licence?..can some please make ASIC answerable….SCOMO are you listening…we wont be voting for you, thats where it hurts and where the ethics are.[/quote]
Solar and Dover were not owned by any vertical integration model. That was their crime.
As mentioned previously, they handed their licence back in in October (before the 21st of November) as it was too hard to fight when a rogue adviser did the wrong thing and hid it from their clients AND the dealer group. So she made sure the affected clients were paid back anything they lost and then decided it was too hard to stay open with the way ASIC treat you. The adviser should go to jail (and is being prosecuted as they should be), and I know Ms Cheer is a very big stickler for compliance. But, don’t let that get in the way of a good story and some pats on the back from ASIC that ‘they got another one’!!
ASIC “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story” ASIC where have you been, you have known what the Big 4 & AMP were up to for years and you did nothing. As said above “too big to attack” so you attack the little Dealer groups. You would have to rocks in your head to get individual licenses, you’ll become a target. ASIC why don’t you look at your legislation first and re-write it in plain English so it’s not subject to interpretation? Somehow the BIG4 and the larger dealer groups have paid lawyers and compliance people millions to interpret the laws to ensure they and their advisers were compliant. If they failed, all dealer groups large or small will fail. ASIC have you found anyone Dealer group is 100% compliant, I say wouldn’t because you keep changing the goal posts. ASIC how many versions of SOA’s are out there doesn’t this ring a bell that people are doing their best but it’s not forget “always subject to interpretation”. ASIC the people you employ to review client files are straight out of Uni, lawyers who have no experience and not even had the experience of sitting in front of a client. ASIC why haven’t you mentioned the good things the advisors do for their clients. ASIC as anyone in your organisation taken a client from start (commencement of the relationship) through to the finish (the unfortunate passing of a client). There are some “bad apples” in financial services as they in other professions, so why is everyone is touched with the same brush. ASIC you can’t tell me the way you and along with bureaucrats get it 100% right. If it’s good enough for the financial services industry to be challenged, why aren’t the bureaucrats dealt with and made accountable for their decisions and work? It takes time to have people in ASIC to actually understand financial services but when your lawyers to the level they should be ASIC you can’t keep them. They leave because they know advisors are going to targeted and these clever lawyers can see the wood through the trees they know defending advisors is to be lots lucrative business (far more they earned working at ASIC for the last 10 years). Defending advisors against the organisation they worked for previously. I’m for client protection they come first but really the way you are approaching your actions is destroying an industry not improving it. Financial Services industry was formed to help clients providing solutions to their problems, that’s what advisors day in and day out. The SOA should be as simple as “where are you today”, “where do you want to be” and this is “how we are going to get there”. In addition, you educate people so that have additional financial literacy. This is the key to educate people on how to achieve goals and objectives. Another secret is clients are not going to learn this in SOA presentation meeting but they will over the years. What a better country we would have economically if financial literacy is taught in the latter years of high school or maybe at unit Accountants & Lawyers don’t do have the work advisors do. Accountants are good at completing forms for the ATO, they give tax advice but it does not have to be in writing. Lawyers provide verbal advice nothing in writing, the only ones that win are the lawyers. My opening comment “don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story” this is what lawyers do for their client, the game is who can tell the best story. They get paid win or lose. I wonder what a royal commission would find on these two professions. Most Accountants & Lawyers are great and like us do the right thing for their clients, just like advisors do for their clients. Hmmmm
Technically they handed it back in, but yes there was an issue with one rouge adviser acting outside afsl. Better to pack tents than stay and fight I guess
How do you know he or she was red?
Ha! typo. Red was probably Maria’s face when she found out about the ex adviser’s conduct; and it was a he from Qld; read the link in the ASIC announcement.
what did Dover and Solar Financial do that was so much worse than the big4 and AMP. that cost them their licence?..can some please make ASIC answerable….SCOMO are you listening…we wont be voting for you, thats where it hurts and where the ethics are.
What did Dover do? Nothing. McMasters’ ran a commission rebate scheme for doctors that refunded more than $1m a year: ASIC mistook it for a super benefits early release scheme. McMasters’ recommended doctors buy houses in SMSFs (strictly fee for service): ASIC mistook it for a SMSF property scam. The truth is sickening.
All those asking what happened and where did they go wrong, rather you should ask what precedence and consistent approach did ASIC apply, and [b]how can ASIC staff get away with a stated mandate of ‘heads on sticks’ (i.e. the barbaric practice of spiking an enemies head on a spear as a warning).[/b]
ASIC’s approach to smaller advisers and AFSLs is exactly that we are the ‘enemy’ and they want our skull on a spear or at least businesses and AFSLs terminated.
[i]How is this a socially acceptable attitude for a supposed ‘impartial regulator’? How is there not an inquiry on the culture and conduct of this institution that has recently chosen to leave the public service to follow its own priorities above those determined under the public servants ‘social justices’ act where they were accountable in proven socially beneficial outcomes, rather than their own mandates?[/i]
Why has IFA and other supposedly ‘profession centric’ publications not taken up the challenge of pursuing this, rather than the easy indolent pathetic misinformation fed to them from self interested sources via media releases?
[quote=James]Wow…yet CBA, NAB, ANZ, WBC, AMP are still providing advice…WTF[/quote]
[size=16px]I hope someone from ASIC and even better, Commissioner Hayne re[c[b][/b]olor=navy][/color]ad this! [/size]
On here LinkedIn it says she has a Bachelor of Economics … from ah “no where”. Does she have one or not? Sam Hendeson then stipulated on his FSG he had an MBA and then when pressed (ah…was exposed) admitted he didn’t have one, but rather was “enrolled”. Oops.
Deep research.
Maria is not flash, however the aforementioned in relation to the big end of town is also relevant.
The major banks have cost the industry a fortune in PI cover due to their misdeeds. I guess they are too big to discipline!
Oh! that is odd, Maria Cheer I’ve heard is a stickler for Compliance – another case of ASIC bullying the little boys .. and girls
another scumbag who worked for Peter Daly at the failed AFS group.
On the flip side though, ASIC want to implement tough onerous, impossible rules to operate within in the financial services industry. The Dealergroup model simply does not work and should fall back to individual licensing and impose those rules on the fund managers (they are the failures) . ASIC fail in their policing processes by not having a department specifically designated for education and training in the management of those licenses.
The most over engineered compliance in the world today. No business will ever pass a ‘GENUINE’ audit.
Reading a file is open to interpretation. What one person says is good, another may well say is bad. These days compliance and auditors will go in with the pre-conceived idea that the persons they are auditing are criminals. There is no objectivity.
once you have worked for Peter Daly, you’re tarnished for life regardless of how long ago that was!
Wow…yet CBA, NAB, ANZ, WBC, AMP are still providing advice…WTF
manage conflicts of interest;
ensure its representatives complied with financial services laws;
properly monitor and supervise its representatives, including by failing to conduct audits; and
adequately manage its internal dispute resolution process
as did..CBA, ANZ, Westpac, NAB, AMP ad they still have a licence…amazing
give us a bit more info please?! what specifically did they do wrong?
they werent large enough to lord it over asic…..seems to be the only reason….too big to fail seems to be the magic touchstone…
I think you will find one of the representatives in Qld was using clients money for their own purposes.
Sad to hear that Brett Gordon managed to bring an AFSL down because of his greed. No consideration for other advisers within the group. So where is he now? And what is ASIC doing about him?
This might help clarify what went wrong with Solar Advisory – basically the actions and greed of one rogue AR (and his wife) has resulted in the forced closure of another small AFSL. Who would want to be an RM in this environment? The larger the number of ARs the greater the risk to the Licensee. IMO the only way to remove the risk of someone fvcking up an AFSL is for EVERY adviser to be individually licensed – that way you are solely responsible for your own conduct.
https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/forward-planning/investment-strategy/property-news-and-insights/86153-asic-commence-court-proceedings-against-former-financial-advisor-brett-gordon-and-his-wife.html