Advice, super sector faces ASIC levies
The financial advice sector will face a fixed levy of $1,500 under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) cost recovery framework released today, while superannuation trustees will face a “graduated component” of the levy, based on the total value of assets as at 30 June.
The corporate regulatory released the framework to update the industry on the nature of the levies since the Government released its proposals paper, ‘Proposed Industry Funding Model for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’ in November 2016.
As part of the framework, financial advice licensees authorised to provide advice on relevant products to retail clients would have to pay the fixed levy.
“The graduated levy for these licensees is based on the number of advisers on the Financial Adviser Register,” ASIC said in a statement.
However, for security dealers, large securities exchange participants and large futures exchange participants, the graduated component would exclude advisers who only provided advice on quoted products, products traded on a foreign financial market or basic banking products.
For superannuation trustees, the metric used would be the total value of assets as at 30 June in registrable superannuation entities, adjusted to exclude assets that were an interest in another registrable superannuation entity operated by the trustee.
Under this structure, the minimum levy they would face would be $18,000 while the threshold for the graduated levy would be $250 million.
For responsible entities, the graduated component of the levy would be based on the total value of assets as at 30 June in registered schemes, excluding assets that were an interest in another registered scheme operated by the responsible entity.
They would face a minimum levy of $7,000, and a threshold for graduated levy of $10 million.
ASIC chairman, Greg Medcraft, said: “We are pleased to be able to confirm the framework to help industry prepare for this new regime and thank industry members for their contribution”.
“ASIC will continue to support industry to comply with their obligations as they become due. Further details will be provided in a Cost Recovery Implementation Statement later this year.”
ASIC also said the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) would continue to recover the costs of the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal through the financial institutions supervisory levies until the 2020-21 financial year, just before tribunal would be scrapped.
Recommended for you
It can be extremely hard to realise the gains from financial advice M&A, according to Peloton Partners’ Rob Jones, and more could be gained from firms looking inward at their own practice.
With platforms reporting their quarterly results, there is a clear divide in the adviser markets they are targeting, according to platform specialist Recep Peker, and which would be right for your clients.
The Federal Court has imposed a $10 million penalty on Macquarie Bank for failing to prevent and control unauthorised fee transactions by third parties including financial advisers.
A financial advice firm has seen a weekly decline of 10 advisers, with all moving to a new licensee, while Centrepoint Alliance continues its “growth story”.
