Of the 8,946 practitioner advisers who belonged to either industry group before their April merger, 8,093 have renewed their membership with the merged entity. The FAAA was “very pleased” with the 90 per cent renewal rate, its CEO said, urging stragglers to renew before a grace period ends next month.
A joint review conducted by ASIC and APRA was scathing of funds’ collective attempts to meet their new legal obligation to help fund members plan for retirement, and urged them to “address, with urgency, the gaps in their approach”.
While finding that more research is needed to determine if the “definitions, metrics and formulas” used to calculate levies remain fit‑for‑purpose, Treasury was able to determine that advisers should no longer benefit from discounted levies.
The public appears to be rewarding efforts to reshape the financial advice and banking industries after the royal commission, with advisers and the banks both enjoying an increase in faith across the community.
On what was set up as a discussion around the proposals put forward by the Quality of Advice Review, the topic repeatedly shifted to the frustration providers felt at not being able to work with ASIC to bring compliant solutions to market.
Multi-strategy separately managed accounts (SMAs) are “taking off like you wouldn’t believe”, according to SQM Research CEO Louis Christopher, but the rapid increase in their use could also be creating a regulatory blind spot.
Four AMP Group businesses deducted insurance premiums and advice fees from superannuation customers despite knowing they had died, a judge ruled, with two of the companies – AMP Life and AMP Financial Planning – hit with $24 million in penalties.
The regulator has issued 26 stop orders against 18 companies for failing to adequately target financial products to the appropriate market since the “design and distribution obligations” regime began, it said in an initial compliance review. And it warned that closer scrutiny is coming.
The advice review lead had said she wouldn’t comment on the recommendations while the government pondered its response. But with the consultation dragging on, she urged the government to get it done and let ASIC do the refinement.
The hits keep coming for the country’s primary stock exchange, which is now under investigation by the corporate regulator for its oversight of the doomed upgrade to its clearing system.
The converged advice and accounting group will go to shareholders with a proposal to change its name to ‘Count’, which it hopes will “better reflect the nature” of its operations.
The regulator’s financial reporting surveillance program has turned up numerous companies failing to make required risk disclosures in financial reports, as it reminds directors of their obligation to provide investors with key information about a company’s prospects.
“I don’t think anyone told me that things are going well,” said Michelle Levy of the advice review consultation process. Despite being given disparate views on how to fix things, the lawyer believes compromise was never an option.
The corporate regulator reports it has issued 21 stop orders against companies over marketing of financial products since new design and distribution obligations went into effect last October, with the rate of enforcement picking up in recent months.
After the regulator abandoned its $500K minimum balance guidance, the SMSF Association says it hopes licensees will reconsider some of the concerns they may have had about low-balance funds.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is making good on promises to combat greenwashing, issuing its second set of fines against a company for misrepresenting the ESG bona fides of an investment product.
The Corporations Act is “technology neutral” according to ASIC, so video SOAs are acceptable as long as they include the eight or so standard compliance requirements.
The corporate regulator has delivered a stern warning to licensees with the release of its guide on consumer remediation. After overseeing billions in repayments to Australians, ASIC chair Karen Chester says the industry “must do better”
Advice is set for a dramatic shift towards deregulation, with the Levy proposal paper sketching a plan to ditch statements of advice and best interest duty in favour of a new “good advice” directive.
The chair will take a hard line on DDO and crack down on scams, but his major concern is crypto misinformation. “My job is to be frank with the Australian people,” he said.
