ASIC quietly conducting dealer survey
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has been conducting a national survey of larger dealer advisers known as the Quality of Advice project.
Money Management understands about 30 dealer groups have been contacted nationally to submit Statements of Advice (SOAs) from their top five advisers.
The regulator is looking for groups of advisers with a combination of five years or more experience and less than five years experience.
The groups have to submit the SOAs under a section 33 notice issued by ASIC from its Perth office.
However, it is believed the project is being run by the Canberra office of the regulator.
An ASIC spokeswoman declined to comment, saying it was too early to reveal what the purpose of the survey was.
Dealer group principals haven’t been told either, other than being ordered to hand over the SOAs.
There has been a suggestion that ASIC may be on a fact-finding mission to define the questions for next year’s shadow shopper survey.
Previous surveys have been criticised for not asking the right questions or having flawed shadow shopper profiles.
There is also a suggestion ASIC is collecting data for its submissions to the various Federal Government inquiries into the financial services industry.
The regulator is interested in SOAs produced between September 2007 and January this year.
The adviser is also required to include all supporting documentation with the three SOAs they are required to submit.
It would seem ASIC has also singled out self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) advice SOAs in addition to the more traditional investment advice.
The SMSF SOAs are additional to the other statements requested and must include all supporting documentation, including trust deeds and other associated documents for running the fund.
One adviser told Money Management that he believed ASIC would be swamped with the amount of documentation it has requested.
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