Major Australian Financial Advisor Gets Clean Bill Of Health From Regulator

Tom Burroughes

29 July 2014

One of Australia’s larges financial planning firms has been given a clean bill of health over its compliance with rules on personal advice, audit and remediation of cases where advice has been poor.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission said yesterday that it acknowledged work by an independent expert to show that had “achieved a significant improvement in its compliance and audit functions, along with a commitment to enhancing its financial advice risk management framework”.

An enforceable undertaking had been ordered on PIS in December 2010. ASIC was concerned that PIS may have failed to comply with its obligations as an Australian financial services licence holder based on the results of surveillances conducted by ASIC. PIS and the Australian watchdog agreed in July 2013 that an independent expert would monitor PIS’s actions for nine months to ensure standards were upheld.

PIS has 1,354 authorised representatives providing financial advice to approximately 430,000 clients, according to the regulator's statement.