Below is a summary of the important changes to be aware of so you can continue to meet your compliance obligations.  If you have any questions relating to this update, or any other compliance-related matter, please contact Geoff Byrnes.

Financial planning legislation changes

• On-going Advice Fee Arrangements commence 1 July 2021
• Charging MySuper accounts new requirements commence 1 July 2021
• Independence Disclosure new requirements commence 1 July 2021
• ASIC CP 335 Consumer Remediation due 26 February 2021
• ASIC CP 332 Promoting access to affordable advice for consumers due 18 January 2021
• ASIC CP 333 Reference checking and information sharing protocol due 29 January 2021

Ongoing Fee Agreements

As discussed in our last update, the Act requires Ongoing Fee Arrangements (OFAs) to be renewed annually (rather than every two years). Fee Disclosure Statements (FDS) should be forward-looking in respect of fees and services.  Written consent should be obtained before advice fees are deducted under an OFA.

You must include the fees that will be charged in the upcoming 12-month period and outline the services which the client is entitled to receive in that period. Please make sure that you keep a record of all the services that you have provided to the client on file. If it is not on the file then it will appear that you have not met this requirement and we will be obligated to report it to ASIC as part of our reporting obligations as a licensee.

FASEA education requirements

Please ensure that if you are providing ‘full financial planning advice’ that you have completed your FASEA exam. If this is not completed by the end of December 2021, you will be deregistered as an advisor and have to re-enter as a provisional adviser.  July is the last exam sitting that allows you to resit in November (if necessary) so that you’re compliant by the December deadline.  If you sit the exam after July and do not pass, then you will not have another opportunity to resit until 2022.

Please continue to complete 10 CPD points every quarter (e.g. 10 points by the end of June 2021) to keep up to date with the required hours.  This is mandatory and you need to ensure that you are completing your required outlined subjects as well.

If you need to upload your CPD points, do them now and email me to check it is up to date.  This will ensure that you have met your 40 CPD points for the financial year.  A new ‘learning’ activity will be completed at the end of this financial year, which will be emailed to you upon completion of this.

Registers

Please also ensure that you are completing the required registers i.e. complaints register, breaches register, securities register, marketing register etc. I will be asking for these for audit purposes or will email you during my ‘spot checks’ and request these. If they have not been completed you will fail the audit and will be unable to provide advice until this is completed.

Marketing

If you are publishing newsletters, social media or other marketing activity, please forward this material to compliance before you publish it.  All content needs to be approved and signed off by compliance to ensure that it’s general in nature and not seen to be providing advice.

Audits

Audits are almost completed.  It’s been a great result for this financial year so thank you for your cooperation with this.

Please remember that an audit should not be seen as us overseeing your advice process and telling you how to give advice. See this as a constructive way to improve your processes and ensure that you’re complying with the required legislation.  We are here to help and guide you through a difficult period within the industry.  We have some further developments and templates which will be emailed to you in the coming weeks. Please keep an eye out for these to assist you and your business, and ultimately, your clients.

Geoff Byrnes

Geoff ensures that our financial advisers follow their compliance duties and legislation so that our clients’ best interests are always at the heart of what we do.  Read his full bio here.