AFA News 21 October 2021. On 14 October 2021, ASIC issued a media release to announce that they were extending their COVID 19 relief measures for financial advisers. This represents the third extension of the relief measures since they were first introduced in April 2020. This extension ends on 15 April 2022.
Principally for financial advisers, the relief includes greater flexibility in the use of a Record of Advice, in that they can be used even when the client’s personal circumstances have changed significantly and where it is not the same adviser that previously provided an SoA to the client, but instead another adviser from the licensee or the practice.
In this announcement, ASIC also confirmed that they were reintroducing an extension for the provision of a Statement of Advice for time-critical advice from 5 days to 20 days, where the reason for the advice is related to the impact of COVID 19.
We are conscious that these measures have not been extensively used in the past and in part this has been due to the short-term nature of the measures and the level of uncertainty about how the utilisation of these measures might be assessed afterwards.
The AFA has continued to advocate for these relief measures, in the belief that they will make it easier to provide financial advice and that this will be beneficial for both advisers and their clients.
For any questions on ASIC’s COVID 19 relief measures please email policy@afa.asn.au.
Issued 21.10.2021. AFA Policy & Education Update
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