The Australian Securities and Investments Commissions (ASIC) has permanently banned a former AMP Financial Planning representative from providing financial services for providing inappropriate advice, failing to provide statements of advice and for not being of good fame and character.
Financial adviser, Damian O’Rourke, from Queensland, was also found to have borrowed over $2 million from clients and others.
O’Rourke was employed as a representative of AMP Financial Planning from 1983 to April 2014. ASIC found that he had failed to comply with key parts of the Corporations Act by:
- Failing to provide a statement of advice to 31 clients when he advised them to apply for income protection insurance, life insurance, trauma insurance and/or total and permanent disability insurance as a new product or to replace an existing insurance product;
- Providing inappropriate insurance and superannuation related product advice to clients in September 2012 and failing to make reasonable inquiries in relation to a client; and
- Failing to act in the best interests of a client in relation to insurance and superannuation product advice he provided in November 2013 and failed to prioritise the client’s best interest over his own.
In relation to money he borrowed from clients, only around 10 per cent of the total money was repaid, he failed to provide independent legal and financial advice to clients, he did not document all of the loans and he continued to attain loans from clients despite knowing he had not repaid earlier loans.
The ban was part of ASIC’s Wealth Management Project, which was established in October 2014. ASIC banned Rommel Panganiban from AMP Financial Planning last week.
