ASIC extends super SOA deadline

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued an instrument to temporarily extend the time financial advisers have to provide retail clients with a statement of advice (SOA) for urgent superannuation advice.

The corporate regulator has issued ASIC Corporations (Urgent Superannuation Advice) Instrument 17-530 (the instrument), which would provide temporary and conditional relief from the requirement for advisers to provide a SOA when or as soon as possible after they provide personal advice to a retail client.

With Parliament yet to finalise legislation in this area, ASIC has issued the instrument, which would give financial advisers up to 30 days to provide an SOA for personal advice provided to retail clients about a superannuation product.

This was related to changes in laws regulating superannuation as a result of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fair and Sustainable Superannuation) Act 2016, where the advice was requested and provided before 1 July 2017.

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“Some of these changes have resulted in unusually high demand for financial advice in the period leading up to 1 July 2017. This has placed pressure on financial advisers delivering SOAs to clients within the statutory timeframes,” ASIC said.

Section 946C of the Corporations Act states that a financial adviser must provide a retail client with a SOA as soon as practicable after personal advice was given in any case, before the provider provided further financial services linked to that advice.

While the provider would be permitted to give the SOA later in time-critical cases, it must usually be given within five business days or, if the relevant financial product was subject to a cooling off period under the Corporations Act, before the cooling-off period began.