Yesterday, ASIC announced that it has banned Matthew Geappen for a period of five years after the regulator expressed concern he advised his clients to switch from one insurance product to another, commonly referred to as ‘churn’, which allowed him to generate commissions from insurance providers.
According to the corporate watchdog, Mr Geappen’s ban is part of ASIC’s Wealth Management Project, meaning his alleged misconduct occurred during his stint as an adviser for CBA-aligned licensee Financial Wisdom.
Its investigation found that he:
- failed to act in the best interests of his clients;
- failed to give advice that was appropriate;
- failed to give priority to the interests of his clients over his own interests; and
- was not adequately trained or competent to provide financial services.
But in a quality advice assurance review report from Financial Wisdom dated 21 March 2016, seen by ifa, Financial Wisdom only found three minor isues with Mr Geappen’s advice to clients.
Regarding one client, the report noted further information and coaching needed to be provided to the client on the validity of the SoA being 30 days after it’s provided.
The other two issues regarded the proper discussion and documentation of client goals.
Further, it noted the issue “has not been raised as a concern in this report, but is provided as feedback only”.
Mr Geappen was with Financial Wisdom from December 2006 to December 2016, before moving to Dover Financial from December 2016 to May 2018.
He then moved from Dover to Synchron in May 2018 until October 2018, before his banning order commenced on 30 November 2018.
The audit report does not say Mr Geappen’s advices are not in the clients’ best interests, not appropriate or prioritise his interests over the clients’ interests, as was mentioned in ASIC’s banning order.
Nor did the audit report say the adviser is not adequately trained, is not competent to provide financial services advice and is of poor fame and character.
More to come.
Astonishing. Listening to radio and talk back financial adviser agrees with a caller to invest into a certain product. No soa no due consideration of the client circumstances. Double standards!
I bet you they don’t put that in the CBA recruitment add. Hotel California code. You can check in but you can’t check out.
Where is the upside working in this industry anymore? I can no longer see any positives.
there aren’t any. too much red tape
no upside.. only downside. no other industry like this. look for new one like most professional advisers are.
Self flagellation
He is neither the first adviser ‘blindsided’ by his licensee, nor will he be the last, but one should not attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. ASIC’s own research, the Courts and the #BankingRC have highlighted the dangerous lack of competency, objectivity and ethics in some large licensees. The reality is that, for most advisers, their licensee is their biggest risk. Although may be beyond some advisers, professional advisers should be self-licensed or actively pursuing that option. For those that can’t, there are a small number of capable licensees that could be considered, but the days of hands-off, low-cost authorizations are well and truly over. Expect more of these actions as licensees seek to redeem their reputations and secure their social licenses.
[quote=Anonymous]CBA actively encouraged aligned advisers to churn customers into Comminsure. They offered increased commission to aligned advisers to do it for gods sake! OnePath did the same with M3. They all did it. This guy of course is then thrown under a bus.
I’m not saying what he did wasn’t wrong but there is no need to drag Dover or Synchron’s name into this. He may have been another adviser who had a good record AFTER leaving a bank owned dealership. Yet again we don’t see ASIC going after the management of CBA / Fin Wiz for this.
Of course not, ASIC management may want a job with them in the future![/quote]
AMP are doing pretty much the same thing…a witchhunt is on to find anything in order to sack advisers with clean compliance records and no client complaints to make themselves look better and save some bonus payments.
It ruins people’s lives.
Disgusting what these companies do!
BOLR BOLR BOLR BOLR!!!!!!
If Hayne doesn’t recommend banning vertical integration then surely he has to recommend banning deceptive brands like “Financial Wisdom”. I’ll bet 95% of this guy’s clients, and 95% of every other Fin Wis adviser’s clients, had no idea Fin Wis is part of CBA. Most consumers take notice of brands, not detailed compliance disclosure.
Spot on. Just took on a client who came from an adviser who was originally with Financial Wisdom and then moved to Matrix. They had no idea that when he put them in CFS this was a product linked to him and when he put them with Clearview later on that was linked with them. They wonder why the industry has such a poor reputation.
Yeah I same thing happened to me I went to Australian Super office and they gave me Australian super and then I went to work for a council and they moved me to LG Super (Local Government super) crazy I had no Idea they were linked and no one explained to me why I could go to BussQ? I can’t understand why I couldn’t have choice what to do with my own retirement money? Both funds took a month each time when they rolled me out of my funds and the market went down both times.. how do I get my money I have lost because the fund took to long to transfer the money?
Unfortunately without an adviser to blame you are left on your own. It is criminal that super funds can roll over money with impunity.
As a predomitely insurance adviser i have been referred too many cases where clients have been unable to claim for their insurances in Industry Super because the client had pre existing conditions which would have been disclosed if the superannuation fund had been forced to act in the client’s best interests when rolling their money out of their old fund.
I find it amazing that insurances can ever be sold, or money transferred between funds without considering the current situation and insurance arangements. If an adviser acted like the super funds then they would be banned, sued and probably jailed, where as ISA and Direct insurances do whatever they want and never get in any trouble.
AFCA is also choked up now, so the dispute resolution system is glacial. Agreed, you are insured until you need to make a claim with the Industry Super Funds.
Did someone at ASIC need to meet a KPI for their bonus? Sounds like they were pretty hasty for some blood.
SO IFA are you going to change the headline of the story you put up yesterday re a former Dover and Synchron adviser being banned when it appears Fin Wiz threw him under a bus?
CBA actively encouraged aligned advisers to churn customers into Comminsure. They offered increased commission to aligned advisers to do it for gods sake! OnePath did the same with M3. They all did it. This guy of course is then thrown under a bus.
I’m not saying what he did wasn’t wrong but there is no need to drag Dover or Synchron’s name into this. He may have been another adviser who had a good record AFTER leaving a bank owned dealership. Yet again we don’t see ASIC going after the management of CBA / Fin Wiz for this.
Of course not, ASIC management may want a job with them in the future!
It’s in the governments best interests to keep the large licensees going (Fin Wiz, M3) because ASIC can rape them financially over and over and over and over and rake in hundreds-of-millions to bankroll their flawed cause. Why kill the Golden Goose when you can rape it (Ooops I meant fine it) for nothing!?!
Completely untrue
There is truth in that statement why do the little guys get shut down but ANZ doesn’t??? every single adviser in ANZ that are employed in a branch work under one licence that means if one of them do the wrong thing and the AFSL has issues every single person under that AFSL has an issue that is why everyone employed with ANZ have one FSG for everyone. But that is not how it works they find issues with planners mainly not making enough money then all of a sudden they have audit issues and a just managed out of the business. they have changed there KPI’s to have less financial targets but the managers in the bank still have FP targets and you get measured on if the staff are happy so everything comes back to $$$ and targets any self respecting adviser learns a lot at a big bank but they always leave. The managers get paid on volume so if the planners are not pulling their weight they get managed out or all of a sudden have problems… this is why you see planners not believing planners are always measured on their audit scores eg when I heard Terry from Dover speaking that is what I think of. Also that being said I also know shit planners ripping people off then moving dealer groups and the whole problem comes back to ASIC not doing their jobs
This might explain why there so many vacant ANZ car bays at the CPP car park in West Perth, a big retrenchment?
So much easier to put forward an exiting advisers file as a fail, so as to show you’re proactive with your compliance.
Lol the same Financial Wisdom that ‘couldnt locate’ all their client files when they got audited years ago.
Tight ship that one.
The Adviser was banned – did you not read the article?
So who wants to be with Fin Wiz?
Who is ASIC & WHO has allowed these incompetents to ruin an advisers business!! Get it through your heads YOU do not own the client nor are you able to provide advice to any individual what you are doing is making it 10 times worse for an individual to get advice!!
You allow a brilliant SOA to be written & accepted by a client & charged $4k & says that that’s ok!!! You really are stupid!!
The Banks re-review your client files on a much rigid framework that didn’t exist at the time (even using new RG docs from ASIC) and discredits you by writing to all your clients, asking for remediation reviews. Asic investigation team (act like gestapo) they call the former clients (atmost 6-6.5 years old engagement, just before statutory limitation kicks in) and frame questions to extract a particular negative response – easy targets are projections and snapshots of a negative return on a falling market. (we just had a falling market so easy target again). Asic Delegate Team are level headed, but pressured by their own managers to ‘execute’ advisers as they are aware alot of legal expenses and budget are spent in the incrimination process. Good luck all.
How about Mr Shipton grows a set and goes after the licencee Financial Wisdom. We put our trust in the audits and licencees. We pay a fee for that just like clients pay a fee for our service. IF they give us bad advice penalise them. No different to an adviser giving a client bad advice, in this case poor Matthew has been publicly shamed, humiliated and unemployed for something that may or may not be correct, depending who looks at it. Maybe Mr Shipton could discuss this at his next cosy coffee catch up with CBA.
Hey “Coffe Club”, when they catch up with ASIC it is more than just a coffee!! See this article below about how ASIC senior staff recieved expensive bottles of wine and upgrades on flights to “special” conferences etc.
CORRUPT & BRIBERY!!
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/watchdogs-wined-dined-and-given-corporate-gifts-without-scrutiny-20190122-p50sy8.html
And what do ASIC do to CBA & Fin Wis – Nothing of course they are a big bank that owns and runs ASIC.
And the Adviser was there for 10 years – they should have done 10 audits, yet they didn’t pick up anything. This smells.
How the frig do ASIC label this poor basted as not being “adequately trained or competent to provide financial services” when he was an adviser for 12 years and giving advise on risk & super which is the most basic products? Where is the backlash and onus on Financial Wisdom & Dover here? Why does the adviser cop the banning and lose his business, lifestyle and morale whilst the licensee gets off scott-free? If the adviser was not “adequately trained or competent to provide financial services” then why haven’t the AFS been penalized and banned by ASIC as well? The adviser pays the AFS fees and commission splits to ensure they (the AFS) are holding up their end of the deal with their license conditions and to provide on-going monitoring and supervision, yet they failed here and the adviser gets banned?!!! This is likened to the government removing all speeding signs and then setting up speed cameras to fine people when they are driving without knowing the speed limits. I DECLARE WAR ON ASIC AND THESE STUPID POLITICIANS MAKING SUCH RULES AND WE NEED TO BAND TOGETHER TO FIGHT THESE INJUSTICES, CHANGE THE LAWS AND MAKE ASIC AND AFS LICENSEES MORE ACCOUNTABLE AND FAIR IN PASSING SUCH “DISCIPLINARY ACTION”
I believe the KPI is approximately 7 bad files with three or four of the repeated occurences. This is irrespective of number of files. If you have 7 files with anything wrong, this number doesnt increase even if you service 100 or 200 clients. Systemic issues tag still applies.
We need a financial fighting fund put together to enable genuine cases to have the funding to engage a suite of specialist Lawyers.
AGREE! But what the hell is the AFA and FPA for?????
Easy…to do the bidding of the major banks…that unfortunately become patently obvious.
If you don’t know what you don’t know then, simply we don’t know. We are told by our licensee ‘Financial Wisdom’ on what and how to collect info and give advice…….Not this persons fault.
Typical of F W for over 2 decades. The more the adviser makes, the bigger the pay packet for the management. Nothing changes. Their compliance is highly questionable, negligent or fraudulent, take your pick. Thr R C has not addressed anything but bandaids—— so far.
Not sure why a Synchron’s name is dragged on here when he was with CBA and Dover for the majority of time.
Surely most of the churning took place at CBA and Dover and Synchron seems to have given him shelter when Diver collapsed.
Dover got booted by ASIC, It was Terry that collapsed….
Read the article from yesterday. All of the churning happened at CBA. None at Dover or Synchron.
Fucked fucked fucked
What a totally fucked industry
there is definitely something wrong here. this needs to be fully investigated. terry do not give up.
This industry stinks. But is is not the advisers. Financial Wisdom were responsible for this guy. They assessed this guy as fine, and took a cut of all his revenue, and then HE gets banned. Boy, does Australia need a Jack Bogle.
wasting your time, asic don’t care they are super aggressive since royal commission. only small players being attacked. spend your time in a new industry guys. you wont be attacked there for helping consumers.
I’ve heard being a car salesman is quite good. Apparently they don’t make much commission on a car and cars don’t seem to depreciate anymore like they used to…or is this just what they tell me to sell me a car…I’m sure they like me act in their clients best interest so all should be good.