Hillross admits ASIC breaches

Hillross Financial Services is to begin a mail-out to 2,500 of its investors in its PortfolioCare Investment Service this week, following news its disclosure docu-ments may have breached the Corporations Law.

Hillross Financial Services is to begin a mail-out to 2,500 of its investors in its PortfolioCare Investment Service this week, following news its disclosure docu-ments may have breached the Corporations Law.

The AMP subsidiary notified the Australian Securities and Investments Commis-sion (ASIC) of the breaches after internal compliance checks showed some of the documentation supplied to investors may have contained “minor technical defi-ciencies or were out of date”.

Hillross is sending investors the up to date information with the letter, which will contain the possible breaches and inform investors of their right to compensation or to have any complaints heard before an independent arbitrator.

The group has also agreed to ASIC’s demands that an external compliance consult-ant review and report on the possible breaches. It has also agreed to appoint an ex-ternal professional compliance consultant to report on its compliance procedures and ensure information memoranda for its investment service is kept up to date.

Hillross managing director Jonathan Harrison says the breaches in no way reflect on its financial planners.

“Hillross apologises for any inconvenience this has caused our investors. The over-sight related to the administration of PortfolioCare and does not reflect on the pro-fessionalism of our financial planners,” he says.

“When recommending managed funds in the PortfolioCare Investment Service, our financial planners would typically have given their clients extra information that was current at the time they invested.

“So we are confident that few, if any, of our investors will have suffered loss or damage. However, we welcome any enquiries they may have about this oversight. We will move quickly to review an investor’s case and, where loss or damage is demonstrated, Hillross will provide compensation.”