FLAG adviser banned for five years


Fleetwood Advisory Group (FLAG) director Steven Fleetwood has been banned from providing financial services for five years by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), following an investigation into his professional activities between 1998 and 2008.
The investigation revealed Fleetwood had been engaged in discretionary trading on behalf of clients as part of the Advisory Group’s Premier Service. According to ASIC, Fleetwood was not authorised to provide discretionary trading services and FLAG did not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence covering the provision of a discretionary managed account service.
In imposing the ban, ASIC also said a number of Statements of Advice (SOA) provided by Fleetwood to clients contained insufficient details about the type of advice provided and the basis on which that advice was given. It was found Fleetwood also provided a SOA to a client after he had already traded shares on the client’s behalf.
Fleetwood has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
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