ASIC bans South Australian adviser for three years
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned South Australian financial adviser, Ramana Rao, from providing financial services for three years due to his lack of professionalism.
According to the corporate regulator, Rao demonstrated a lack of professionalism, judgement and integrity when advising some of his self-managed super funds (SMSF) clients.
ASIC found that Rao had advised one of his clients to obtain financial assistance by drawing out funds from their SMSF where the removal was not permitted by the Superannuation Industry Act 1991 or the SMSF’s trust deed.
In the eyes of ASIC, Rao failed to prioritise the interests of a client over his own by recommending that his SMSF client provide a loan to his business.
According to ASIC, Rao knew that such an investment was not a sound one.
ASIC also found, that in both instances, Rao failed to give his clients statements of advice.
Rao has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of ASIC’s decision.
AUTHOR
Oksana Patron
Recommended for you
ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of global advisory group Brite Advisors after compensation was paid to an individual by the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort.
Having taken some “quite tough medicine” during its 18-month transformation program, Iress is now doubling down on organic growth in the delivery of its wealth technologies.
The RIAA Conference Australia 2025 will take place later this month, featuring a range of sessions designed for financial advisers.
The month of April enjoyed four back-to-back weeks of growth in financial adviser numbers, with this past week seeing a net rise of five.
