Rollover has a certain amount of sympathy for Colonial First State and the other superannuation fund trustees who have acted on Adviser Service Fees in the wake of receiving a somewhat pointed letter from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
The letter, received in April, and signed by APRA’s deputy chair, Helen Rowell tougher with ASIC commissioner, Danielle Press represented a follow-up to the fee-for-no-service issues ventilated during the Royal Commission and made clear that the word of financial advisers were simply not good enough.
“We emphasise that care needs to be taken to ensure that controls do not place undue reliance on assurances or attestations from financial advisers or other third parties given the potential personal conflict of interest that these parties might have in the continuation of fee payments,” the letter said.
Most importantly of all, the two regulators said they’d be following up to see what fund trustees had actually done.
Little wonder the likes of CFS have not only acted but ensured they’ve been seen to act.
