ASIC Bans Again For Execution Only
Following on from Jason Atkin’s failed appeal to the AAT, ASIC has now banned another adviser who claimed they were merely facilitating the establishment of SMSFs on behalf of their clients.
Once again ASIC have shown that it is essential that an adviser determine if an SMSF is appropriate for a client even if the client says they don’t want the advice and simply instruct you to establish it.
Think about another situation. You go to your doctor. You have a sore shoulder. You instruct your doctor to give you a cortisone injection because you did your own research on Google and you can only get the injection from a Doctor.
You tell the doctor that he doesn’t ned to determine if it is the best outcome but just to give you the shot and he won’t be responsible for anything that happens.
In this situation, you know that the doctor will not do it and will have to make an assessment and provide you with the correct treatment.
Well ASIC are saying that financial advisers are being held to the same standard. You can’t just charge your client money to facilitate them making the wrong financial decision.
I am not sure where accountants stand with this because in both the above mentioned cases the adviser was an authorised representative of an AFSL and as such was qualified to provide the advice.
An accountant who is not authorised may be excused because they are not qualified to make that determination but then is that accountant in breach of the ethical principle of “competence”.
It just muddy’s the waters even more.
