The warning follows an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) review that identified some cold calling operators using high-pressure sales tactics to lure consumers with unsolicited calls after obtaining their personal information from third-party data brokers or by using online clickbait.
These have led to generation and referral arrangements with a small subset of financial advisers, who typically recommend consumers switch into super products incurring significant fees.
The calls are targeting people between 25–50 years of age and ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said they were putting people at risk of having their retirement savings eroded.
“Some of these cold calling operators are pressuring consumers in critical retirement-saving years to move their savings when it is not in their best interests, putting them at risk of having less super as a result of inappropriate investments, fees and charges,” he said.
Specifically, ASIC has observed considerable volumes of superannuation savings flowing into high-risk property managed investment schemes — either via platform superannuation products offered by APRA-regulated funds or a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) — and associated payments made to cold calling businesses.
Kirkland said ASIC was prepared to take action to protect consumers and called on financial advice licensees and super trustees to do more to weed out unscrupulous actors and reduce consumer harm.
“Financial advice licensees and super trustees have a critical role to play in preventing this conduct, including by reporting it to ASIC if and when they become aware of the conduct,” he said.
ASIC said that financial advice licensees should ensure they have in place adequate monitoring and supervision arrangements to detect concerning conduct and to make sure their advisers are acting in the best interests of their clients.
Likewise, ASIC expects trustees to be mindful of the potential for superannuation balance erosion and ensure they have in place robust systems and processes to oversee charges of financial advice fees from member accounts.
“Hello……Mrs Smith?
Its your friendly Industry Super Fund calling.
As you have been a valued member of our fund for some years now, we wondered if you had any other monies in super if you would like to consider amalgamating those funds with ours in order to save on those nasty fees that other funds will be charging you?
As we know you and you are one of our big family, we don’t consider our contact today to be cold calling, rather lets call it a Luke Warm Member cuddle or as Stephen Jones would call a Gentle Nudge!
What more can one say?
Industry Super FUM being lost seems to be the consistent issue for ASIC?
How about ASIC also look at the non-licensed operators in this market using even worse tactics.
These unlicensed marketing entities cold call anyone, telling them that they are experts in superannuation and investment breaching of 911c, then proceed to denigrate the existing persons superannuation fund talking expensive, low returns etc, the convince them moving into another investment that you have control over using an SMSF. They then use an SMSF document only service. They then organise a cash account, and deduct directly their ‘referral’ fee out of the SMSF. No doubt they also get a kick back from the investment issuer, which is always a wholesale operator, and even if it is a retail fund, the person cannot complain to AFCA because their was no advice, or push back to the wholesale manager, who says ‘sorry, we’re wholesale and not a member of AFCA.
These operators are becoming more prolific because ASIC is only concerned with licensed operators.
I have personally reported these operators, and ASIC’s only concern is with the document only service, which may have an AFSL on the side.
ASIC needs to understand that it is a corporate regulator, and not just concentrate on the licensed guys. How about shutting down these unlicensed operators instead of encouraging them through lack of oversight or even possibly interest.
Damm right. It’s the ones sidestepping any advice documents that are the real worry. When you report them to asic they do nothing. Then have the cheek to tell us to report them.
“Financial advice licensees and super trustees have a critical role to play in preventing this conduct, including by reporting it to ASIC if and when they become aware of the conduct,” he said.
And there it is – ASIC wants Super trustees to report to ASIC when FUM is rolled from ???? to higher cost etc alternatives Super arrangements?
“ASIC expects trustees to be mindful of the potential for superannuation balance erosion and ensure they have in place robust systems and processes to oversee charges of financial advice fees from member accounts”.
WOW ASIC SO YOU DO WANT SUPER TRUSTEES TO CHECK EVERY PIECE OF ADVICE, SOA’S ETC.
ASIC are so unbelievably corrupted against Real Advisers.
They would prefer people are scammed like the last 3 years,
ASIC let Australians be scammed out of the MASSIVE amounts of:
2021 = $2 BILLION Scammed
2022 = $3.1 BILLION Scammed
2023 = $2.7 BILLION Scammed
Yep ASIC let Australians be scammed by at least $7.8 BILLION in 3 years. ($7,800,000,000)
Yet they continue to attack and focus on Real Financial Advisers that have NOT Caused any where near these losses.
“Kirkland said ASIC was prepared to take action to protect consumers and called on financial advice licensees and super trustees to do more to weed out unscrupulous actors and reduce consumer harm.”
Is he serious?
Does he really believe that most of these scammers are licensed advisers.
Whats that old saying about confirmation bias?
ASIC are always prepared to protect consumers….by banning Advisers for spelling mistakes, sending a 75 page SoA instead of 175 page, streamlining services and reporting for clients, following Licensee instructions & processes….all the big scary things that could destroy consumers