Former AMP adviser banned for five years

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned a former AMP financial adviser, Desmond Winton Luplau, for five years, after finding that he failed to act in clients’ best interests and gave advice which was “well below community expectations”.

At the time of the offending behaviour, Luplau had been an authorised representative of Charter Financial Planning Limited, a company wholly owned by AMP Financial Planning.

He worked there from December 2013 to July 2016, which was the time period that the regulator’s surveillance had focused on.

Specifically, ASIC’s investigation uncovered that Luplau had failed to:

• Clearly explain what the advice was about;
• Consider the clients’ relevant personal and financial circumstances, including in some instances not obtaining those relevant details;
• Consider whether his clients’ existing financial products met their objectives;
• Compare clients’ existing products with those he recommended;
• Provide his clients with a clear and precise investment strategy; and
• Give appropriate disclosure about the benefits or consequences of replacing the clients’ financial products.

Additionally, the regulator found that Luplau’s record keeping practices were inadequate.

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Luplau had also previously worked as an employee representative of Westpac from February 2005 to March 2010.