Sean Philip Lewis was banned following an ASIC surveillance of his advice during his time as an authorised representative of Spectrum Wealth Advisers. ASIC found that Mr Lewis failed to provide advice that was in the best interests of his clients and failed to provide advice that was appropriate for his clients’ objectives.
“Mr Lewis advised most of his clients to use a limited recourse borrowing arrangement (LRBA) to fund the purchase of real property through a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF),” ASIC said in a statement. “Mr Lewis also gave insurance advice to all clients.
“When providing this advice, Mr Lewis did not professionally and independently assess whether using an SMSF and borrowed funds to invest in property was an appropriate strategy for each of his clients. He also did not adequately investigate or offer any alternative investment strategies that may have provided greater diversification of risks.”
ASIC also found that Mr Lewis prioritised his own interests over that of his clients by providing insurance advice that would generate large commissions for himself, regardless of whether the recommended products were appropriate for clients.
Mr Lewis has been an authorised representative of Wealth Today Pty Ltd (October 2010 to January 2012), GWM Adviser Services, which is owned by NAB (January 2012 to November 2012) and AMP Financial Planning (December 2012 to January 2013), among others.
Is this the guy who is a fully licensed real estate agent, financial advisor, mortgage broker, property investor and also changed licensee about 7 times….. what could possibly go wrong? Out you go mate!
Principally this guy is a mortgage broker.
How can people make comment when they only hear half the evidence or know don’t even taken time to get to know the person and the situation. He has been and still is a Mortgage broker since 2003. In 2010 he decided to increase his knowledge and study to be a financial adviser. To better understand the industry he was working with ie Real Estate Agents he studied to get his qualifications in Real Estate. He separated his dealings when working for his clients ie if he was the planner he did not do the finance or property sale, when he did the finance he did not do the property sale of financial planning and so on, so he was not conflicting each qualification. I can’t believe how people can nock someone who has tried to better himself in eduction. There are a plethora of mortgage brokers and financial planners out there making comms from property sales for which they are giving the financial advice for ie “Bluewealth”.
All licensees have a case to answer!
And when will anyone look to regulate and/or give similar punishments to the thousands of Accountants and Solicitors out there giving even more complex advice to clients without the qualifications and with little-to-no documentation without any Best Interests or Fee Disclosure Statements and all while charging high hourly rates for it? An Accountant can do a lot more damage to a client’s situation, personal financial life, business financial life, and even to the ATO depending on what schemes they direct their clients into.
Accountants don’t earn commission which is a dirty word in the eyes of ASIC
yes they do
He got around a bit. Did nobody suss what was going on or were they just turning a blind eye.
Hardly turning a blind eye. The instos would’ve actively rewarded this conduct; especially since they stood to also benefit.
Who are these people and how did they become Advisers??
You can’t possibly answer that question without insulting about 80% of financial planners.