Regulator puts brakes on US money roadshow
By Rebecca Evans
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has interjected with an American investment roadshow operating around Australia to ensure attendees do not receive unlicensed financial advice.
ASIC has obtained undertakings from the American speaker John Burley and the promoter of the seminars — Pow Wow Events — not to provide financial advice in relation to the stock market or other financial products at the seminar.
The two seminars in the series presented by Burley include Winning the Money Game and Automatic Wealth. The former runs for three hours, and the latter, three days, with investors paying up to $5,000 to attend.
The seminar organisers have also agreed to correct the representations made in the promotional material that Burley would be providing financial product advice in relation to the stock market and/or other financial products during the seminar, and in future not to represent that they will provide financial product advice, whether though specific recommendations, general advice or the provision of training, in contravention of the Corporations Act.
The promoters complied with their commitment to ASIC, reading a statement pursuant to the undertakings at the start of the first seminar last week.
This is the second instance in as many weeks investment seminar promoters have been pulled up by the authorities for allegedly misrepresenting promotional material.
Vision Pursuit and Giann & Giann agreed to the consent orders following allegations by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and ASIC that the pair’s promotion of the Robert Allen Millionaire Matrix Seminar, which was held in Sydney recently, was misleading and/or deceptive.
Recommended for you
With the final tally for FY25 now confirmed, how many advisers left during the financial year and how does it compare to the previous year?
HUB24 has appointed Matt Willis from Vanguard as an executive general manager of platform growth to strengthen the platform’s relationships with industry stakeholders.
Investment manager Drummond Capital Partners has announced a raft of adviser-focused updates, including a practice growth division, relaunched manager research capabilities, and a passive model portfolio suite.
When it comes to M&A activity, the share of financial buyers such as private equity firms in Australia fell from 67 per cent to 12 per cent in the last financial year.
