Following its recent acquisition of A Rich Life, an online periodical covering news and arts created by Canberran equities analyst Claude Walker, Equity Story Group has revealed its new objective is to provide “investment knowledge” and services to investors “under-serviced” by the traditional wealth advice industry.
The ASX-listed company plans to do this by recruiting finfluencers and offering them protection from the corporate regulator.
Namely, in a statement issued earlier this week, Equity Story Group said being acquired by a licensed platform would effectively transform a finfluencer into a financial adviser under the law.
This, it noted, “could be the emergence of a new trend” after Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in March warned that it was monitoring some finfluencers for allegedly providing unlicensed advice online.
Namely, at the time, ASIC flagged that finfluencers could be breaching the law if they discuss finance and investing without an Australian financial services licence (AFSL) or authorisation from a licensee.
ASIC underlined that “misleading and deceptive conduct” identified would amount to a criminal offence and warned that “if we see harm occurring, we will take action to enforce the law”.
As such, the idea behind Equity Story’s acquisition of A Rich Life is that what was once news content could crossover into general advice under its AFSL. Namely, as cited in the statement, “Claude Walker will be able to expand his commentary on ASX stocks and investment ideas”.
Commenting on the transaction, valued at $500,000, Mr Walker said: “This sale will increase the time I can spend reporting on the best investment opportunities and will also allow me to offer investment recommendations”.
Also chiming in, Equity Story CEO Trent McGraw said this acquisition marks the company’s first step towards its “wider mission” to provide a deep variety of investment content, perspective and analysis as part of Equity Story’s financial investor media offering.
“We continue to seek acquisition discussions with other share market analysts and financial commentators to further broaden our content offering to our growing subscriber base.”
Another dodgy AFSL. Really? Finfluencers providing general investment advice? This literally defeats the purpose of compliance and bringing the industry to a professional level. Disgusting act. Just playing around grey areas and trying to make a few $$$
Shelter from ASIC by operating under an AFSL?? You must be kidding. The best way to avoid ASIC scrutiny is to be unlicensed. ASIC’s primary focus is the persecution of all licensed advisers, including the honest majority. Protecting consumers from unlicensed shonks and scammers is not their priority.
That’s why so many accountants are handing back their limited licenses. Accountants who did the right thing by getting trained and licensed found themselves targets for ASIC persecution. Accountants who carried on giving dodgy advice without a licence were completely ignored by ASIC.
So all you need to give product advice is an AFSL, no other compliance requirements? The buyer appears to be ill-informed and likely to have wasted their money!
If a finfluencer is transformed to a financial adviser under law then surely that Finfluencer needs to meet the required education qualifications, FASEA Exam, ongoing CPD points etc. I can just imagine the Finfluencer’s lining up in droves to do all that!
So, will they end each segment with a disclosure on remuneration?? Is this just returning to commissions by another name??
Will these Finfluencers want to sit the exam, and complete a professional year? This will be fun.
Oh great more unqualified people providing advice to the general public just what the industry needs.