IOOF has issued an update to the ASX about its acquisition on ANZ Wealth in light of revelations of ‘unacceptable’ adviser monitoring at ANZ licensee RI Advice.
The royal commission hearing also examined allegations of ‘fees for no service’ being charged by advisers at the big four banks – an issue that ANZ entered into an EU with ASIC over on 6 April 2018.
The IOOF note to the ASX titled ‘ANZ Wealth Management progress update’ noted the “existence of contractual protections provided to IOOF in respect of certain pre-completion conduct, subject to certain limitations”.
“For example, ANZ has provided various indemnities in favour of IOOF in relation to liability arising from a claim by a client made within five years of completion relating to various types of adviser pre-completion conduct, misconduct and non-compliance,” said IOOF.
IOOF also said “all regulatory hurdles” to the completion of the ANZ Wealth Management acquisition have been “favourably resolved”.
Specifically, the ACCC does not intend to conduct a public review of the acquisition, said IOOF – and “the extension of concessional tax treatment for transferring members has been approved and legislated by Parliament”.
Bell Potter analyst Lafitani Sotiriou has previously warned that IOOF faces significant risk by way of ANZ evidence before the royal commission.
Litigation by ambulance chasing law firms as well as the big ones will destroy most financial planning business sales. Who on earth would want to take on any book from a any planning firm let alone a banks planning book! My god you would have to be a moron to think it worthwhile.
This type of emotional and somewhat irrational response is a problem. Clearly you have an axe to grind and personal motivation for your comment. You should disclose tis so we can all better understand the context for your comment. Your position on vertical integration is simplistic. The issues revealed by the commission highlight this. The testimony of Sam Henderson and Dover financial planning perfect examples. Rather than seeking to divide the whole industry should be coming together to acknowledge this issues and work as a collective to solve. This is what consumers deserve and expect as opposed to fighting to protect self interest.
Have they sought to placate investors about the potential need to onsell the ANZ advice businesses at a fire sale price, along with Bridges, Shadforths, Consultum and various others, if the RC results in a ban on vertical integration?