Wealth Management – Page 32 – Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

ASIC enhances Financial Advisers Register

ASIC has now launched the second stage of the Financial Advisers Register (FAR) which now includes information about advisers’ qualifications, training and memberships of professional bodies.

The register, which has been available to the public since the end of March this year, can be searched on ASIC’s MoneySmart website www.moneysmart.gov.au. To date there have been more than 60,000 visits and more than 100,000 searches undertaken on the register.

There are more than 23,000 financial advisers now on the register. It contains details of persons employed or authorised – directly or indirectly – by Australian financial services (AFS) licensees to provide personal financial advice to retail clients on investments, superannuation and life insurance.

ASIC Deputy Chairman, Peter Kell said, ‘From today consumers will be able to see the qualifications and professional memberships in addition to the basic information about advisers already available on the register. We want consumers to be able to make an informed decision in their choice of adviser and the register is a good starting point.’

ASIC has also made available data from the Financial Advisers Register to the Australian Government website www.data.gov.au which can be downloaded free of charge. The data snapshot will enable easy and quick analysis of aspects of the financial advice industry.

The transition phase for the new register will end at the end of September 2015. From 1 October 2015 late fee penalties will apply. ASIC can take action for providing a false or misleading statement to ASIC under the Corporations Act.

Managed Funds Up By 5% To $2.6 Trillion At March 2015

The ABS data today shows further substantial growth in managed funds. At 31 March 2015, the managed funds industry had $2,618.7b funds under management, an increase of $114.2b (5%) on the December quarter 2014 figure of $2,504.5b.

The main valuation effects that occurred during the March quarter 2015 were as follows: the S&P/ASX 200 increased 8.9%; the price of foreign shares, as represented by the MSCI World Index excluding Australia, increased 1.8%; and the A$ depreciated 6.9% against the US$.

At 31 March 2015, the consolidated assets of managed funds institutions were $2,073.0b, an increase of $100.3b (5%) on the December quarter 2014 figure of $1,972.7b.

The asset types that increased were shares, $45.8b (8%); overseas assets, $34.2b (8%); units in trusts, $10.8b (5%); other financial assets, $3.4b (13%); short term securities, $3.3b (4%); bonds, etc., $2.9b (3%); land, buildings and equipment, $2.7b (1%); loans and placements, $0.9b (2%); and derivatives, $0.7b (34%). These were partially offset by decreases in deposits, $4.3b (2%); and other non-financial assets, $0.1b (1%). The chart below shows the unconsolidated mix at end March 2015.

At 31 March 2015, there were $536.7b of assets cross invested between managed funds institutions. At 31 March 2015, the unconsolidated assets of superannuation (pension) funds increased $106.2b (6%), life insurance corporations increased $14.3b (5%), public offer (retail) unit trusts increased $8.9b (3%), cash management trusts increased $1.4b (6%), friendly societies increased $0.2b (2%), and common funds increased $0.1b (1%).

ASIC Update On CBA’s Financial Advice Compensation Programme

ASIC today released KordaMentha Forensic’s first report on past activities by Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited (CFPL) and Financial Wisdom Limited (FWL) to compensate clients, and to identify high-risk advisers and affected customers.

The report confirms the inconsistency and deficiencies of an original $52 million compensation scheme. These shortcomings, which disadvantaged some customers, led to ASIC imposing new Australian financial services (AFS) licence conditions on CFPL and FWL in 2014 .

The failings are being rectified through KordaMentha Forensic’s review. Following the release of today’s report, the first of three to be delivered to ASIC, Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will contact approximately 2740 customers to offer them up to $5000 to have their advice assessment reviewed and to seek independent advice.

KordaMentha Forensic’s second report will assess whether CFPL and FWL had a reasonable basis for identifying the clients and advisers for the original compensation scheme. If KordaMentha Forensic finds that other clients or advisers should have been captured, CFPL and FWL will be required to rectify this.

KordaMentha Forensic’s third report will provide an assessment of this work and CFPL and FWL’s compliance with the licence condition program.

Purpose and key findings of Comparison Report

KordaMentha Forensic’s Comparison Report reviews and compares CFPL and FWL’s processes for reviewing and communicating with two groups of clients:

Clients who received advice from banned former CFPL advisers Don Nguyen and Anthony Awkar, and who were remediated under a compensation program known as Project Hartnett; and
Certain clients of further former CFPL and FWL advisers, many of whom were offered compensation as a result of adviser misconduct, in a separate compensation program.

KordaMentha Forensic found three inconsistencies between the compensation programs which CFPL and FWL are required to rectify for affected clients:

Initial letter: In Project Hartnett, clients received a letter indicating that the advice they received was being investigated and that CFPL would contact them with the outcome. However, most clients assessed in the Compensation Program did not receive this letter. For those clients who did receive a letter, it was often inconsistent with the Project Hartnett letters (for example, some letters did not include the adviser’s name or alert the client that the licensee was investigating concerns it had with the adviser)
Offer of up to $5000 for independent advice: In Project Hartnett, clients who received advice which was implemented were generally (but not in all cases) sent a letter which included an offer of up to $5000 for independent professional advice to help them assess the validity of the licensee’s review and any compensation offer. In the Compensation Program, the offer was discretionary – and no clients were given this offer
Close-out letter: In Project Hartnett, clients who received the initial letter indicating there was an investigation being conducted into the advice provided to them, but who were determined not to be entitled to compensation, received a letter stating this result of the file review. However, in the Compensation Program, while some clients received a letter offering compensation or advising they were not entitled to compensation, most clients reviewed received no such communication. As a result they were not given an opportunity to participate in the review and decision making processes as to whether they were entitled to compensation

Following this report, the licensees will contact approximately 2740 clients offering them up to $5000 to have their financial advice independently reviewed and the other options available under the licence conditions. The licensees will also write to a further 1590 clients informing them that a review of their file found no evidence that they had received advice, but if that is not correct, the clients will be offered $5000 assistance and all the options available under the licence conditions.

KordaMentha Forensic’s work in preparation for this report also revealed that 86 clients under Project Hartnett did not receive the $5000 offer, and some clients did not receive an ‘Initial Letter’ explaining that their advice was being reviewed. CBA has given a commitment to ASIC that these clients will now be treated consistently with other clients under the licence conditions, including the $5000 offer.

ANZ Will Pay $30m To Prime Access Clients

ANZ today confirmed it will be reimbursing some Prime Access clients after it identified the documented annual review, part of a package of services, had not been provided. Prime Access is a fee-for-service package introduced in 2003 and includes priority access to financial planners, investment monitoring alerts and a documented annual review.

In accordance with its obligations under the Corporations Act, ANZ reported the issue to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and commenced a remediation program supported by external consultants PwC and law firm Clayton Utz.

ANZ estimates the cost of reimbursing around 8,500 clients who did not receive a documented annual review to be approximately $30 million.

ANZ is working with ASIC to finalise the refund methodology and payments will commence as soon as the methodology is agreed. ANZ CEO Global Wealth Joyce Phillips said: “We sincerely apologise to our clients for not delivering all of the Prime Access services we promised and we will reimburse affected clients as soon as possible”.

Another example of issues in the troubled financial planning and advice sector in Australia, and demonstrating the need for more reform to rebuild trust. Today ASIC announced that it was investigating new instances of licensees charging clients for financial advice, including annual advice reviews, where the advice was not provided. Most of the fees have been charged as part of a client’s service agreement with their financial adviser.

Funds Under Management Now $2.5 Trillion

ABS released their funds management data to December 2014. The managed funds industry had $2,489.9b funds under management (including some changes to the data capture and revisions), an increase of $57.6b (2%) on the September quarter 2014 figure of $2,432.3b. The main valuation effects that occurred during the December quarter 2014 were:

the S&P/ASX 200 increased 2.2%
the price of foreign shares, as represented by the MSCI World Index excluding Australia, increased 0.8%
A$ depreciated 6.7% against the US$.

At 31 December 2014, the consolidated assets of managed funds institutions were $1,958.5b, an increase of $48.8b (3%) on the September quarter 2014 figure of $1,909.7b. The asset types that increased were:

overseas assets, $29.6b (8%)
shares, $14.6b (3%)
short term securities, $8.6b (10%)
bonds, etc., $4.3b (4%)
derivatives, $0.8b (65%)
other non-financial assets, $0.2b (2%).

These were partially offset by decreases in:

other financial assets, $3.4b (11%)
deposits, $3.2b (1%)
land, buildings and equipment, $1.5b (1%)
loans and placements, $1.0b (2%)
and units in trusts, $0.2b (0%).

At 31 December 2014, there were $503.9b of assets cross invested between managed funds institutions whilst the unconsolidated assets of superannuation (pension) funds increased $54.4b (3%), public offer (retail) unit trusts increased $4.5b (2%), life insurance corporations increased $4.3b (2%), cash management trusts increased $0.8b (3%), and common funds increased $0.2b (2%). Friendly societies were flat.

Time To Fix Financial Planning Properly

There will, no doubt, be more calls for a Royal Commission into the impact of poor advice provided by financial planners, following the reports of mis-advice at the NAB, which follows on from CBA, and a long list of other firms.

It is clear that there has been significant poor advice provided by some, perhaps influenced by target chasing, commissions, personal gain or errors. Many who received such poor advice will probably be unaware, and simply observe their portfolios are not performing as they expected. On the other hand, poor performance does not necessarily mean poor advice, it could be simply market dynamics, because most investments are inherently risky. That said, it is therefore hard to get a good read on how many people are impacted, but my guess it is into the many thousands, many of these victims do not have deep pockets so cannot fight back.

The superannuation balances of Australians now stand at more than $1.93 trillion so more households will need advice going forward. Much of that could still be conflicted in the current industry structures. Conflicted advice is right in the middle of the current industry problems, and whilst there are many excellent advisors doing the right think by their clients, the reputation of the entire industry is being trashed.

Despite the FOFA reforms (which has been subject to various government attempted revisions) we think that there is still room for significant improvement in the regulatory framework, practice and culture relating to providing good financial advice in Australia, with a focus on doing the right thing for clients. The claim that “its just a few bad apples” becomes less credible as more organisations are implicated. Both ASIC and the recent FSI report highlighted significant structural problems.

We think that the concept of general advice should be removed, and advisors should not be able to receive any indirect financial benefit from the advice they provide.

Separately, financial products can be sold, provided all relevant facts, and costs are disclosed. The two – advice and product sales, should be separated completely. You can read my earlier discussions here. Any link between the two creates conflict and the risk of poor advice.

So, first we need to fix up the industry going forwards. Personally, I think the architecture of a solution is pretty clear, if unpopular from a market participants perspective. Next we need a mechanism to identify people who have received wrong advice, so it can be rectified. That of course is a complex process, and again will be resisted by the industry.

We do not need another couple of years of inactivity whilst yet more inquiries rake over the coals some more. Rather it is time for action.

NAB Financial Advisors Under The Microscope

According to the Sydney Morning Herald,

“The National Australia Bank has quietly paid millions of dollars in compensation to hundreds of clients given what it considers inappropriate financial planning advice since 2009.

The bank is the latest institution to face disturbing revelations of misconduct in its financial planning division, with a Fairfax Media investigation uncovering instances of forgery, “rogue advisers” and multiple sackings inside its financial advice arm.

A cache of confidential internal documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveals that, according to NAB, 31 of its financial planners were terminated, suspended or had their resignations “ensured” due to conflicts of interest, inappropriate advice, inappropriate practices or repeated compliance breaches

Disturbingly, the document states that these instances were not detected by the bank’s internal controls, but through client complaints or queries by authorities”.

This is further evidence that the financial advice sector is not up to scratch, and that despite the FOFA reforms (which has been subject to various government attempted revisions) we think that there is still room for significant improvement in the regulatory framework, practice and culture relating to providing good financial advice in Australia, with a focus on doing the right thing for clients. The claim that “its just a few bad apples” becomes less credible as more organisations are implicated. Both ASIC and the recent FSI report highlighted significant structural problems. Remember the superannuation balances of Australians now stand at more than $1.93 trillion.

We think that the concept of general advice should be removed, and advisors should not be able to receive any indirect financial benefit from the advice they provide. Separately, financial products can be sold, provided all relevant facts, and costs are disclosed. The two – advice and product sales, should be separated completely. You can read my earlier discussions here.

Financial Adviser Directory Will Be Active End March 2015 – ASIC

ASIC, is well advanced with work on an industry-wide public register of financial advisers to be up and running at the end of March according to an update released today.

The register will contain details of all persons employed or authorised – directly or indirectly – by Australian financial services (AFS) licensees who are authorised to provide personal financial advice to retail clients on Tier 1 (investment) products. Tier 1 products are financial products other than basic banking products, general insurance products or consumer credit insurance products or a combination of any of those products.

It is intended the register will be accessible online from ASIC’s MoneySmart website from 31 March 2015.

The Government had announced plans to establish the register in October 2014, and intends to make regulations relating to the register in coming days. ASIC is working with licensees and authorised representatives to assist them to provide the required information in accordance with the timetable in the planned regulations.

ASIC has a dedicated webpage www.asic.gov.au/far and encourages all licensees to subscribe via this webpage to receive email correspondence about the register.

Managed Funds Now Worth $2.44 Trillion

The ABS just released their Managed Funds data to September 2014. The managed funds industry had $2,439.5b funds under management, an increase of $26.6b (1%) on the June quarter 2014 figure of $2,412.8b. The main valuation effects that occurred during the September quarter 2014 were as follows: the S&P/ASX 200 decreased 1.9%; the price of foreign shares, as represented by the MSCI World Index excluding Australia, increased 2.4%; and the A$ depreciated 7.6% against the US$.

The consolidated assets of managed funds institutions were $1,922.7b, an increase of $20.0b (1%) on the June quarter 2014 figure of $1,902.7b. The asset types that increased were overseas assets, $16.8b (5%); deposits, $4.4b (2%); short term securities, $2.5b (3%); units in trusts, $2.3b (1%); land, buildings and equipment, $0.6b (0%); and shares, $0.1b (0%). These were partially offset by decreases in other financial assets, $5.8b (16%); bonds, etc., $0.5b (0%); other non-financial assets, $0.2b (2%); and loans and placements, $0.2b (0%). Derivatives were flat. There were $484.7b of assets cross invested between managed funds institutions.

Unconsolidated assets of superannuation (pension) funds increased $24.3b (1%), life insurance corporations increased $3.0b (1%), public offer (retail) unit trusts increased $1.9b (1%), cash management trusts increased $0.6b (2%), common funds increased $0.2b (2%), and friendly societies increased $0.1b (1%).