The Financial Planning Association is conducting an inquiry into the practices of its members in recommending investments in managed investment schemes.

FPA deputy chief executive Deen Sanders said the inquiry was formed to review FPA members’ exposure to collapsed agribusiness investment companies Timbercorp and Great Southern. He said the FPA had requested information from all its members and had received a substantial number of responses.

Sanders said the FPA is reviewing its members’ level of exposure to these two companies, including any potential risks to clients and to the businesses of the financial planners associated with them. The FPA is also trying to ascertain whether there were instances of inappropriate advice.

Of the responses received by the FPA, Sanders said there is no evidence of inappropriate advice.

Sanders said the FPA at this stage still regarded “the MIS issue as a corporate collapse issue”.

However, he said there was no compulsion for FPA members to respond to the association’s inquiries. But a failure to do so may in fact present a reason for the FPA to look further into the practices of a licensee, Sanders said.