Tag: compliance

While most practices treat compliance as a burden to manage, the fix is far simpler than most advisers realise.

Catherine Evans of Kit Legal writes about AML/CTF compliance as a living framework and how tailored, risk‑based programs help firms meet obligations, avoid missteps, and build trust.

With AML/CTF regulation expanding in 2026, Catherine Evans dismantles the dangerous myths that low-risk clients and good intentions are enough to keep professional advisers compliant.

The end of the financial year is here. For many it is a flurry of activity and last-minute scrambling. For financial advisers, this is the time to shine. This is the moment where the strategic foresight and proactive client service can really make a difference to the future financial wellbeing of clients. But in this rush, compliance can never take a back seat.

In September last year, the Australian government fixed a glaring anomaly in the country’s laws, under which Australia had embarrassingly fallen short of global standards in fighting financial crime.

While advisers and their licensees place most of their compliance eggs in the SOA basket, the real focus should remain on more robust client discovery and documentation processes according to Assured Support’s Ben Moffatt.

Compliance staff have been in high demand for a few years now, but the rise of industry super funds and the private capital sector has created even more demand for talent, both at the top and bottom end of the experience spectrum.

It’s not a corner office or a fatter pay packet at the top of paraplanners’ collective wish list, but something that is much more beneficial to financial advice practices and the clients they serve.

The compliance software provider has acquired consultancy provider MIntegrity in a move Complii chairman Craig Mason hopes will “open the door” to further business opportunities.

“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.

In a letter released by the group Thursday it said “urgent action is needed”, and called the government’s impending response a “rare opportunity to deliver affordable and accessible advice to consumers”.

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.

Transaction has become a dirty word in financial services yet trust and strong professional relationships can be built on regular transactions over time, according to Bell Direct CEO Arnie Selvarajah.

The question, in my view, isn’t what is affordable. It’s this: what price should we be willing to pay for long-term financial security?

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 global ETF and would-be superannuation fund provider believes a scaled compliance model would better serve the domestic advice market.