ASIC issues warning over dodgy cold calling super switching advice

The warning follows an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) review that identified some cold calling operators using high-pressure sales tactics to lure consumers with unsolicited calls after obtaining their personal information from third-party data brokers or by using online clickbait.

These have led to generation and referral arrangements with a small subset of financial advisers, who typically recommend consumers switch into super products incurring significant fees.

The calls are targeting people between 25–50 years of age and ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said they were putting people at risk of having their retirement savings eroded.

“Some of these cold calling operators are pressuring consumers in critical retirement-saving years to move their savings when it is not in their best interests, putting them at risk of having less super as a result of inappropriate investments, fees and charges,” he said.

Specifically, ASIC has observed considerable volumes of superannuation savings flowing into high-risk property managed investment schemes — either via platform superannuation products offered by APRA-regulated funds or a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) — and associated payments made to cold calling businesses.

Kirkland said ASIC was prepared to take action to protect consumers and called on financial advice licensees and super trustees to do more to weed out unscrupulous actors and reduce consumer harm.

“Financial advice licensees and super trustees have a critical role to play in preventing this conduct, including by reporting it to ASIC if and when they become aware of the conduct,” he said.

ASIC said that financial advice licensees should ensure they have in place adequate monitoring and supervision arrangements to detect concerning conduct and to make sure their advisers are acting in the best interests of their clients.

Likewise, ASIC expects trustees to be mindful of the potential for superannuation balance erosion and ensure they have in place robust systems and processes to oversee charges of financial advice fees from member accounts.