Shock, horror planners not guilty
Financial planners have actually managed to surprise the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) by refusing to take lucrative commissions from property spruikers.
Evidence given by a senior ASIC officer to Senate Estimates yesterday revealed the manner in which planners had actually adopted the high moral ground where residential property spruiking was concerned and had declined to take commissions and, in doing so, had proved adverse media reports to be wrong.
Answering questions from Tasmanian Greens Senator, Peter Whish-Wilson, ASIC senior executive, Joanna Bird, referenced what she described as "a whole spate" of allegations in newspapers about two years' ago involving financial planners taking commissions to recommend residential property.
"We followed them all up and there was nothing happening," she said. "In fact, it was one of those circumstances where the outcome was quite pleasing — commissions were being offered to financial advisers and when we approached the people who were offering them they did not actually manage to find anyone who would take them."
Senator Whish-Wilson had asked whether, if he went to a financial planner, or a financial adviser, and they recommended that he invested in an off-plan development because the planner was being offered a 15 per cent commission, it would be viewed as conflicted remuneration under the Future of Financial Advice legislation.
Bird said it would depend on the circumstances and that it might prove a stretch because real estate was not regarded as a financial product.
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