The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has sought to emphasise the successful outcomes generated by the so-called “Wealth Management Project” it kicked off late last year, focusing on Australia’s largest wealth management firms.
The regulator noted yesterday that a NSW adviser it had banned for eight years and who was a former authorised representative of Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited (CFPL) was the sixth person to be banned as part of the “Wealth Management Project”.
Under the project ASIC said it was undertaking a number of investigations and proactive risk-based surveillances, with particular focus on compliance in large financial advice businesses.
It said the NSW adviser’s banning had followed on from ASIC accepting enforceable undertakings from two Queensland financial advisers, Reid Menkens, a former Millennium3 Financial Services and AMP Financial Planning representative, and Leo Menkens, a former AMP representative.
ASIC also noted that, as part of the project, Australian Financial Planning Solutions (AFPS), an authorised representative of Charter Financial Planning, an Australian financial services (AFS) licensee and subsidiary of AMP, had paid $10,200 in penalties after ASIC issued an infringement notice for making false or misleading representations.
It said other banning actions taken by ASIC evolving out of the project included Martin Hodgetts, Shawn Hickman, Brett O’Malley, Brian Farber, and Rebecca Locksley.
ASIC chairman, Greg Medcraft earlier this year told a Parliamentary Committee that, in response to problems in the financial advice sector, ASIC had set up “a specialist Wealth Management Project to focus on the large advice entities — the four major banks, Macquarie, and AMP. We have significant work under way targeting these entities, including NAB Wealth”.
