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Government finally announces its QAR response
Stephen Jones has finally announced the government’s much anticipated plan for implementing the Quality of Advice recommendations. In an address to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, the Minister announced that the government accepts 14 of the 22...
What can we learn from ASIC’s recent actions?
ASIC recently released its enforcement and regulatory update covering the first quarter of 2023, and so we thought it would be a good time to look at some of the key things we’ve learned from ASIC’s actions over the past months. Cookie-cutter advice: National Advice...
Government consults on experience pathway for advisers
Treasury has released draft legislation to create an ‘experience pathway’ for advisers who have at least 10 years’ industry experience and a clean disciplinary record and to fix some of the issues with the education standards. The draft is currently open for...
It’s finally here: the QAR report
You could hardly have missed the fact that the Albanese Government released the final report in the Quality of Advice review this week. We’re not in the business of hot takes and will be taking some time to digest the detail of this very detailed...
What ASIC said (and didn’t say) about breach reporting
A lot has been written about ASIC’s report on the first 9 months of the new reportable situations (breach reporting) regime. Some of the headlines have caused concern, like those focusing on ASIC’s intended naming (and associated shaming) of licensees who lodge breach...
Quality of Advice Review submission
Better Advice FAQs. Pt. 2
Do we need to change the wording in our SOAs where it refers to ‘tax (financial) advisers’? Some advice template documents include a disclaimer that refers to registration with the Tax Practitioners Board. Unless you’re a tax agent, this is no longer...
What licensees need to know about managing cybersecurity risks
For the first time in Australia, a court has found that failing to adequately manage cybersecurity risks can amount to a breach of AFS licence obligations. What did the Federal Court case decide? The Federal Court found that AFS licensee RI Advice had...
Better Advice FAQs
What’s the process for new advisers who want to provide tax (financial) advice)? Since 31 December 2021, the TPB has stopped registering financial advisers as tax (financial) advisers. Any individual advisers who want to be authorised to provide tax...
Is Backup and Recovery Important ? – It’s critical
I didn’t want to admit my backup plan consisted of hoping we didn’t need one (Bryan Fields). Hope is not a plan. In today’s IT environment of ever-increasing threats backups and recovery are as important as the system itself. Moreover, it is critically...