End of the road for Statements of Additional Advice

SOA/australian-securities-and-investments-commission/

31 August 2009
| By Liam Egan |

Today is officially the last day advisers can use Statements of Additional Advice (SOAA) as part of their advice process under the terms of Australian Securities and Investments Commission regulations.

On May 22 this year the regulator issued advisory AD09-92, in which it announced that Class Order 04/1556, which provided for the use of SOAAs, would be revoked on September 1, 2009.

This class order essentially created the SOAA, granting relief from the full Statement of Advice (SOA) as a means to simplify the “further advice” process where certain conditions were met.

The Class Order is that it has been superseded by subsequent regulation (Corporations Regulation 7.7.10AE), which relates to the creation of Records of Advice (ROAs), according to financial planning specialist lawyer Mark Halsey.

He said all licensees would need to consider how they provide “further advice” from September 1, 2009, and remove the SOAA document from their menu of choices.

Those licensees who have been using SOAAs will “need to adjust to the prescribed requirements” of the ROAs, which he said represent a simplification of the “further advice” process.

However, Halsey said he had seen a significant number of licensees who appear to be “not entirely comfortable” with the concept of only using ROAs as envisaged under the Corporations Regulation.

“Instead they would prefer to automatically provide some form of simple advice document, rather than merely hold the record of the advice on file, and only provide it if and when the client asks for the record at any time up to seven years after the provision of the advice.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

5 months 1 week ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

5 months 1 week ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

7 months 2 weeks ago

The RBA has handed down its much-anticipated rate decision, following widespread expectations of a close call....

3 days 6 hours ago

The FSCP has issued a written direction to an adviser who charged clients “extraordinary fees” for inappropriate and conflicted advice, as well as encouraged them to swit...

2 weeks 4 days ago

ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of an advice firm associated with Shield and First Guardian collapses, and permanently banned its responsible manager. ...

4 weeks ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
2
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
95.46 3 y p.a(%)
5