WA adviser latest to feel ASIC wrath

TheAustralian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)has added another financial planner to its banned list, expelling Western Australian based adviser Bruce Chandler for a period of two years this week.

Chandler has been banned from acting as an investment adviser or a representative of a dealer for the two year period after an investigation by the corporate watchdog.

The investigation found Chandler had failed to disclose commissions or fees earned in connection with the recommendations he made to a number of clients between September 1999 and March last year.

Chandler, an authorised representative of Professional Investment Services from March 2000 until March 2001, was found by ASIC to be guilty of not performing his duties as an authorised representative honestly, efficiently and fairly.

Chandler had also acted as an authorised representative of financial planning firm Complete Financial Strategies from September 1999 until March 2000.

In separate incidents over the last week, ASIC has issued life bans to two advisers, Timothy Myles Austin and John Michael Higgins.

Austin, a former securities representative in the Newcastle area, agreed to a life ban after ASIC found he transferred approximately $600,000 from a client's account to an account controlled by himself, without authority, and then used those funds without authority.

Higgins, a director of Macquarie Town Financial Services in Richmond, New South Wales, was given a life ban after it was discovered he was placing clients’ funds into his own business account.