ASIC takes action to promote delivery of financial advice during the coronavirus.

AFA News 14 April 2020. Today, ASIC has announced some initial relief measures related to the provision of financial advice, which we warmly welcome. These measures, which are focused on coronavirus related advice, include the following:

  • The timeframe for providing an SoA, after the provision of time critical advice, has been extended from 5 business days to 30 business days.
  • The limitation that an RoA can only be provided where the client’s personal circumstances have not changed significantly, or the basis of the advice has not changed significantly, has been lifted.
  • The limitation that an RoA can only be provided where the “providing entity” (the licensee, CAR or AR) has previously provided an SoA, has been extended so that in the case of an Authorised Representative, the previous SoA could have been provided by the licensee or any other AR from that licensee.
  • In the case of advice on early release of superannuation, an RoA can be used (it is not necessary to have previously provided an SoA), and this can apply to new clients.  There is a cap of $300 on any fee that can be charged to a new client for early release advice.

We welcome these announcements and acknowledge the work that ASIC has done. These are significant first steps to ensuring more people will gain the necessary advice to make significant and important financial decisions.

For further information on this, please read the ASIC media release and an FAQ for financial advisers. In addition, for detailed information on these relief measures, and their limitations, you should read the ASIC legislative instrument and the Explanatory Statement to the ASIC legislative instrument.

It is important to note that your licensee may have other rules in place that you are required to comply with, and we encourage you to check with your licensee in terms of implementing these changes.

We anticipate further announcements over coming weeks and will ensure you’re kept up to date.  We will continue to work with the Government, ASIC and other key stakeholders to ensure that financial advisers can focus upon assisting their clients in these difficult times and that they can have some confidence in the sustainability of their businesses.

Thank you to all our members for your feedback and support – your input has assisted us in presenting proposals to Government and ASIC, and in providing a deeper understanding of the challenges and practical solutions to assist all in managing our way through this crisis.

We also welcome any further suggestions that members may have about measures to make it easier for you to support your clients during this challenging time and for you to keep your business running. Please provide any suggestions or feedback to policy@afa.asn.au.