Ex-Spectrum adviser banned for five years
The corporate regulator has banned former Spectrum Wealth adviser, Sean Philip Lewis, for five years after advising most clients to use a limited recourse borrowing arrangement (LRBA) and providing insurance advice to generate large commissions for himself.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said the Hunter Valley-based adviser failed to comply with financial services law, failed to provide advice that was in the best interests of his clients, and failed to provide advice that was appropriate for his clients’ objectives.
The LRBAs were used to fund the purchase of real property through a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) but Lewis did not assess whether the strategy was appropriate for each of his clients.
“He also did not adequately investigate or offer any alternative investment strategies that may have provided greater diversification of risks,” ASIC said.
ASIC also found when providing insurance advice, Lewis prioritised his own interests over that of clients as the advice would generate large commissions for himself, regardless of whether the recommended products were appropriate for his clients.
Lewis was an authorised representative of Spectrum between December 2013 and June 2018, and was most recently an authorised representative of Consolidated Mercantile Group between July 2019 and January 2020.
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.