AFA News 14 April 2022.  On Thursday 7 April 2022, ASIC announced that the COVID temporary relief measures that have been in place, in different forms, since April 2020, will cease on 15 April 2022.

In its most recent form, this relief allowed a financial adviser to provide a Record of Advice (RoA) to a client impacted by COVID, even where their personal circumstances have changed significantly since the previous Statement of Advice was provided and to extend the time to provide a Statement of Advice in a time-critical advice context, from 5 days to 20 days.

ASIC has rolled this relief over a number of times, and varied the measures, since it was first introduced in the early days of the COVID outbreak back in early 2020, however on this occasion, they were seeking evidence that it was still being used and that it was providing genuine benefits for consumers.  They were conscious that lockdowns and border closures have now come to an end.

The AFA was supportive of the RoA measure being extended and we also expressed an interest in the RoA flexibility measure being retained in the longer term, although this will be a matter for the Quality of Advice Review.

Please click here to see the ASIC media release on COVID relief measures.

For any questions on the ASIC COVID relief, please email policy@afa.asn.au

Issued 14.04.2022. AFA Policy & Education Update

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