Adelaide adviser permanently banned from industry

Tai Thanh Nguyen received the ban after an investigation found he had dishonestly backdated advice documents to clients, incorrectly witnessed binding nominations of beneficiary forms, created or modified client files produced to ASIC and attempted to induce a client to mislead the regulator.

ASIC commissioner Danielle Press said that financial advisers had an important responsibility to their clients and ASIC would continue to take actions against those who breached those responsibilities.

“Financial advisers have a critical role to play in helping consumers make confident and informed decisions about financial products,” Ms Press said.

“They have an obligation to act in the best interests of their clients when providing advice and must adhere to ethical standards and conduct themselves with honesty and professionalism. ASIC will continue to take action where the conduct of financial advisers is inadequate.”

ASIC also found that Mr Nguyen had further engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by allowing the incorrectly witnessed binding nomination forms to be submitted to insurers on behalf of two of his clients.

He had also failed to comply with a financial services law by implementing financial advice to four clients before they were provided with a statement of advice.

ASIC found that Mr Nguyen is likely to contravene a financial services law for reasons including that he had engaged in dishonest conduct while he was an authorised representative of GWM Adviser Services Limited, and continued to do so while he was an authorised representative of InterPrac Financial Planning. Moreover, he acted dishonestly in the course of responding to an ASIC statutory notice.

Mr Nguyen’s banning will be recorded on ASIC’s publicly available Financial Advisers Register, which consumers can access to check the qualifications and credentials of financial advisers.

Eliot Hastie

Eliot Hastie is a journalist at Momentum Media, writing primarily for its wealth and financial services platforms. 

Eliot joined the team in 2018 having previously written on Real Estate Business with Momentum Media as well.

Eliot graduated from the University of Westminster, UK with a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism).

You can email him on: [email protected]