financial advisers

Financial planning

ACCC delivers industry funds clean bill of health on advice

Industry superannuation funds have been delivered a clean bill of health on their use of third-party advice services. ...

Financial planning

Advisers numbers already running 15% below historic average

Adviser numbers were already running close to 15% below the industry’s long-term average even before the end of 2020 and before the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics...

Policy & Regulation

ASIC claims to have planners in its regulatory ranks

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is insisting it has empathy for financial planning licensees because it has both former advisers and paraplanners in ...

Policy & Regulation

Without legal definition assets consultants are in the clear

Financial advisers may be significantly constrained in using the term “independent” but asset consultants are largely in the clear because asset consultation is not a leg...

Policy & Regulation

ASIC reveals a pretty modest and bland gifts and benefits register

Anyone looking for over the top largesse being heaped on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will be sadly disappointed. ...

Financial planning

FASEA reveals October exam underperformance areas

Financial advice regulatory and legal requirements, and applied ethical and professional reasoning and communication, were the two biggest problem areas in the October ex...

Financial planning

Are asset consultants caught in the same ‘independent’ trap as financial advisers?

Questions are being asked about whether the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has been wrong to treat asset consultants differently to financial advisers i...

Financial planning

IOOF encounters attrition amongst Godfrey Pembroke advisers

A majority of Godfrey Pembroke advisers have signalled they will be signing up to a new Godfrey Pembroke-branded license under IOOF but around 25% appear to have made alt...

Financial planning

ASIC’s adviser reference-checking protocols potentially ‘prejudicial’

Financial advisers could be placed at risk of retribution when switching licensees under the reference checking protocols being put forward by the Australian Securities a...

Financial planning

ASIC challenged on mislabelling law-breakers as ‘financial advisers’

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is going to have to explain why it chose to describe a man convicted of dishonest conduct as a ‘financial adviser’ wh...

Financial planning

FASEA regime confirmed as driving early retirements

Retirement was always a primary reason for financial advisers selling their businesses but the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority has accelerated many retir...

Policy & Regulation

ASIC reaches into super trying to couple DDO with member outcomes

Superannuation funds are being subjected to more scrutiny from the corporate regulator over how they deliver insurance inside super to members at the same time as the reg...

Financial planning

Advisers' businesses unsustainable if only looking for cheap licensees

Advisers need to be confident that a prospective licensee will be around in the future if they are looking for a discounted licensee, according to a panel....

Funds management

Look to sustainable dividends to manage risk

Sustainable dividends, a non-benchmark approach to selecting companies, and stock-specific hedging can help manage risks while generating equity income, according to Merl...