ASIC bans former Macquarie-aligned adviser

Brian Farber, a former authorised representative of Macquarie's now defunct Risk Advice Specialists dealer group, has been banned from providing financial services for four years for a number of compliance breaches.

Mr Farber's banning follows an investigation by ASIC after the regulator was given information from his former dealer group which expressed concerns relating to the insurance advice he had given clients.

It was found that Mr Farber was "not adequately trained or competent" to provide financial services and had failed to comply with the law.

ASIC found in a number of instances that Mr Farber "failed to act in his clients' best interests" and engaged in deceptive conduct relating to the backdating of statements of advice.

"Consumers should be confident that their financial adviser is acting in their best interest," ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said.

"The business model of simply 'selling' life insurance without complying with the legal and regulatory obligations will not be tolerated by ASIC and advisers who do so will be removed from the industry," he said.

Mr Farber has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.

ifa's sister title Risk Adviser broke the news that Macquarie was shutting down its insurance specialist dealer group earlier this year. 

The closure of the dealer group left a number of authorised representatives scrambling for a new lisncensee. 

Both TAL-aligned Affinia Financial Advisers and non-aligned dealer group Synchron picked up advisers from the former Macquarie dealer group.