The Financial Services and Credit Panel has made a registration prohibition order against financial adviser Stephen Rogers from 7 December 2023 until after 6 December 2025.
According to a statement issued by ASIC on Tuesday, Mr Rogers was found to have given non-compliant advice to a client and acted in a way that was misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive the client.
In the circumstances, the regulator said that Mr Rogers inappropriately:
- Used a scaled advice model that scoped his advice to the client to exclude the suitability of an SMSF or the suitability of an SMSF investing into products related to Mr Rogers’ licensee.
- Used a rate of return in the benefit comparison in his statement of advice.
Mr Rogers has had his registration as a financial adviser cancelled and is prohibited from being registered with ASIC. He is also prohibited from giving personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products during the prohibition period.
The FSCP makes administrative decisions on matters referred to it by ASIC that relate to the conduct of financial advisers. The FSCP is a pool of industry participants, appointed by the minister, that ASIC draws upon when forming individual sitting panels. Each sitting panel comprises an ASIC staff member and at least two members of the FSCP.
The panel operates separately from, but alongside, ASIC’s existing administrative decision-making processes, to respond to lower-level misconduct and ensure that minor misconduct does not go unaddressed. The FSCP has the power to make a registration prohibition order under s921L(1)(c) of the Corporations Act.
ASIC noted that it convened a sitting panel of the FSCP for Mr Rogers as part of its cross-sector priority to deter cold calling superannuation switching business models which has the broader aim of protecting consumers from cold calling practices that induce inappropriate superannuation switching and result in the erosion of members’ superannuation balances.
Good – about time we saw some significant penalties. Practitioners need to know that the FSCP are not toothless and will take action when needed.
Gee, I wonder how busy the FSCP will be with the new class ‘qualified advisers’ providing a 1 advice strategy fits all advice strategies? Or will Jones provide another carve out from having to report ‘qualified advisers’ to the FSCP?