Lifespan denies Morrison Carr fall-out
Lifespan Financial Planning has sought a retraction and apology from a national daily newspaper which suggested the dealer group was being closely monitored by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) because it had appointed a number of former Morrison Carr advisers.
Lifespan joint managing director John Ardino has strongly refuted the suggestion and said the dealer group "should not have been lumped in with other organisations that may have been under intense surveillance".
"ASIC officers have in fact never visited Lifespan head office in relation to growing quickly or any compliance matter," he said.
However Ardino did confirm that ASIC had, last August, phoned Lifespan in relation to the appointment of 20 or more advisers from Morrison Carr; and that five of his senior staff had discussed Lifespan's compliance resources and processes while offering to provide a report to ASIC about the due diligence procedures undertaken before the former Morrison Carr advisers were appointed.
"ASIC has confirmed with Lifespan than following our two reports ASIC has no issues with our appointment procedures or compliance processes," he said.
Ardino said all advisers who had joined Lifespan from Morrison Carr had signed declarations that they had never had a professional indemnity claim in the last 10 years and these declarations had been confirmed with the relevant broker.
"Lifespan conducted in-depth due diligence on each adviser before they were appointed and has closely monitored their advice to clients and their initial ongoing training, as we do with all our representatives," he said.
Ardino said the problems which caused the cancellation of the Morrison Carr licence had nothing whatever to do with any adviser who joined Lifespan (or other licensees) from Morrison Carr and there had "never been any suggestion from ASIC or anyone else that they might be anything other than competent advisers".
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