Breach reporting dashboard leaves misconduct shrouded in mystery
ASIC’s new breach reporting dashboard shows instances of staff misconduct, negligence, and in one case financial advice fraud that resulted in $1.5 million remediation. But the businesses behind that misconduct will remain a mystery after industry pushback saw the regulator backtrack on publishing the names of firms.
November 07, 2025
When AI reads your advice: How technology is shaping the future of client engagement
Just as AI has crept into the advice process to help drive efficiency, clients are also leveraging the benefits to better understand – and sometimes to try and outsmart – their advisers. Financial adviser Sangram Rana writes there are ways to respectfully engage the clients who are using AI to review their own advice documents, particularly when the emerging technology ignores practical limitations.
November 07, 2025
ASIC’s SMSF review highlights serious BID issues
Over 60 per cent of advice files reviewed in ASIC’s SMSF review failed to demonstrate compliance with the best interests duty. The results of the long-awaited review have raised concerns about client detriment from inappropriately setting up SMSFs and the regulator will consider a “broad range” of enforcement options.
November 06, 2025
SMSF review shows clear disregard for Code of Ethics
ASIC’s latest report into SMSF establishment advice shows some advisers are either ignorant of their obligations, or they know what their obligations are but are simply ignoring them. In any case, the conduct that has been uncovered can’t just be waved away under the Code of Ethics.
November 06, 2025
Trustees-for-hire can survive Shield, First Guardian scandal: ASIC chair
In a valedictory address to the National Press Club of Australia, ASIC chair Joe Longo said he doesn't believe the Shield and First Guardian collapse will spell the end of the outsourced super trustee model. The televised speech raised the profile of the increasingly important role of platforms in capital markets and the need for them to improve due diligence.
November 05, 2025
Actuaries pinpoint ‘guidance’ as key to retirement advice reform
The Actuaries Institute has urged the government to get on with the job of finishing its Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms and move on to the introduction of “guidance” as a bridge for super funds to use between fact- or information-based help and full-blown financial advice.
November 05, 2025
ASIC will review adviser distribution of private credit next year
ASIC will review the retail distribution of private credit funds through advised channels next year as it releases a new surveillance report covering managers including Metrics, La Trobe, Challenger, Qualitas and Ares. The report also highlighted the influence that ratings houses can have on a fund’s distribution and the importance of robust research governance.
November 05, 2025
Super funds must strike ‘balancing act’ on private markets
Super fund investments in private markets have helped members and the Australian economy, but they must keep working to balance their need for diversification and performance with any “heightened risk”, according to a long-awaited ASIC report into the sector.
November 05, 2025
What Navy Seals can teach advice businesses about preparing for digital disruption
Like so many industries, digital disruption is coming for wealth management and financial advice, but many businesses are choosing to wait and see rather than aggressively embrace technologies like AI and automation. To avoid falling behind, businesses should move forward and adopt a "slow is smooth and smooth is fast" approach like the Navy Seals, writes VBP’s Nathan Jacobsen.
November 03, 2025
Value for money ‘paramount’ for investors
Value for money reigns supreme for advisers, and moving clients out of underperforming high-cost products isn’t just a phenomenon in Australia, the latest Professional Planner Shape of Advice podcast heard. But aiming for a simple, low-cost portfolio still requires a rigorous governance process.
October 31, 2025
‘I haven’t ignored any warnings’: Mulino says about Shield, First Guardian
Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino has pushed back against criticism by his shadow counterpart that he ignored warnings about regulating managed investment schemes, in light of the collapse of the Shield and First Guardian master funds.
October 31, 2025
