Three advisers slapped with bans

Former ANZ authorised representative Christopher Harris was banned for 10 years after he was found to have not acted in the best interests of clients, and failed to provide statements of advice and fee disclosure statements.

In addition to being an authorised representative of then ANZ-owned dealer group Millennium3 between 2008 and 2017, Mr Harris had also been an authorised representative of Dover between 2017 and 2018, and had misrepresented himself as being authorised to provide financial advice when he was director of Money Works Financial Planning, which was appointed as the corporate authorised representative for Futuro Financial Services in 2018.

Melbourne adviser Bimaljeet Sekhon, a former authorised representative of Count Financial, was also banned by ASIC for three years. 

A review of Ms Sekhon's advice had found she had not made reasonable inquiries into, and based judgement on, her clients' relevant circumstances, and that she had not appropriately scoped her advice.

"Ms Sekhon failed to consider some clients’ existing insurance arrangements and the potential impact of the recommended products’ premiums on her clients’ retirement savings," ASIC said.

Further, ASIC also banned Sydney-based risk adviser Alan Davies for three years.

Mr Davies, who was the sole director and authorised representative of Risk Insurance Consultants from 2013 to 2020, was found to have not complied with financial services laws and the regulator said he was not adequately trained to provide financial services.

"Specifically, ASIC found that Mr Davies had failed to properly investigate and document his clients’ relevant financial objectives and personal circumstances when providing life insurance advice," the regulator said.

"When recommending that his clients switch insurance products, Mr Davies also failed to consider whether a switch was in his clients’ best interests and whether his clients could have achieved their objectives within their existing insurance products."

Mr Harris and Ms Sekhon's bans were part of ASIC's Wealth Management Major Institutions Portfolio focusing on misconduct at Australia's largest financial institutions, while Mr Davies' ban came about as a result of the regulator's Life Insurance Lapse Data Project, based on data provided to ASIC by life insurers around high-risk advisers who "met specific thresholds relating to lapsed policies".