Legal and Compliance firm for SMEs launched
To help small and medium enterprises deal with the unprecedented amount of change in financial services imac legal & compliance has been launched by a financial services executive and lawyer.
imac founder, Ian McDermott, said it is nearly impossible for smaller financial services businesses to keep up with all the regulatory changes and requirements, as well comply with all the obligations.
"In our experience, not many lawyers have practical experience running compliance programs as compliance managers and not many compliance managers are lawyers experienced in advising financial services businesses. But this is exactly the bridge imac legal & compliance straddles," McDermott said.
"We have not only acted as external legal counsel and advisers but also worked in senior in-house positions implementing FSR [financial services regulation], FOFA [future of financial advice], NCCP [National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009], TASA [Tax Agent Services Act 2009], and other compliance requirements."
McDermott was most recently senior legal counsel and headed up deal group Australian Unity Personal Financial Services' risk and compliance team, and was brought to the firm to implement FOFA.
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.
