‘Very poor’ groups respond as ASIC comes knocking

TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) examination of financial planning groups named as having produced ‘very poor’ plans in the regulator’s recent report into the industry has begun, with many of the groups already locked in discussions with ASIC.

The executive director of consumer protection at ASIC, Peter Kell, announced last week that ASIC would look into each of the groups whose advisers produced ‘very poor’ plans in the report.

Individual plans labelled ‘very poor’ came from the ANZ Bank,Securitor, Charter,PACT, Bell Potter,JB Were, Protax andTolhurst Noall, with two each fromAMPandMawsons.

ANZ spokesperson Paul Edwards says the group has already entered into discussions with ASIC and is happy to listen to the regulator’s suggestions for improvement.

He says although ANZ produces thousandsof plans and only three were sampled, any instance of a poor plan isn’t acceptable, reinforcing the need fortraining, development and monitoring programs within the group.

AMP director of advice and services Steve Helmich says the group has also been in discussions with ASIC and would welcome further input from the regulator.

“I am not happy we have some plans in the very poor category, but you just take the information on board and try to use it to improve,” Helmich says.

Mawsons and Protax financial planning groups have also contacted ASIC in regard to the ACA results, though they have both expressed frustration at ASIC not providing them with more information on how the ratings of the plans were established.

“Our hands are tied behind our backs, as we don’t know what the criteria were for judgment and who the individual advisers were,” Johnson says.

ASIC has told the dealer groups it will provide them with a generic report about their performance, but will not reveal the names of individual advisers who were tested as part of the investigation.