MAGAZINE OF CHOICE FOR AUSTRALIA’S WEALTH INDUSTRY
www.moneymanagement.com.au
Vol. 35 No 16 | September 9, 2021
ESTATE PLANNING
Plans for advice practices
16
ADVICE
22
Efficient review meetings
SMALL CAPS
28
TOOLBOX
ESG and greenwashing
Advice industry still owes ASIC $2.4m for FY2019-20 BY JASSMYN GOH
THE corporate regulator has revealed there is $2.4 million in outstanding levies from the financial advice sector for the financial year 2019-20. In answers to questions on notice, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), said the total amount of regulatory costs to be recovered for the year was $59.59 million. This was up from FY2018-19 costs
of $34.07 million, and FY2017-18 costs of $28.26 million. There were also outstanding amounts of $285,000 for FY2018-19. The outstanding amount was calculated after approved waivers had been taken into account. ASIC noted for FY2019-20 the median levy for licensees that provided personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products was $3,926 and the average levy was $18,762.
ASIC to go hard on super funds that overpromise BY CHRIS DASTOOR
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The opportunity in IPOs FOR small-cap fund managers, their aim is to seek out those companies at an early stage which are going to grow into large, successful businesses. But managers were divided on whether their hunt included those companies which were looking to list on the market. After a sluggish 2020 thanks to the pandemic, there had already been 61 initial public offerings (IPOs) in the first half of 2021 according to HLB Mann Judd, particularly in the small-cap space. Some fund managers thought that IPOs presented a great opportunity to “get in early” while others wanted to watch from the sidelines until it had a clear track record. All agreed they could be risky and required more due diligence than the average stock. Richard Ivers, portfolio manager at Prime Value Asset Management, said: “It needs to be an attractive price, you need to be able to see the financials in detail as there can be tricks in how they phrase things, talk to customers and suppliers, it is a good sign if the owner isn’t selling equity. They can be high risk and need more due diligence but the price you pay should reflect that.”
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Full feature on page 14
THE Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will be monitoring all communication from superannuation funds, not just those that failed the Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) performance test, with a focus on specific disclosures being made to members. Speaking at the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) Superannuation Investment Conference, Jane Eccleston, ASIC senior executive leader for superannuation, said the regulator would act if it saw false, misleading or deceptive conduct in these disclosures. “We’ll be looking at the underperformance notifications that funds send to members, as well as other performance disclosure measures, including disclosures made by funds that passed the test,” Eccleston said. “For those of you working in investments, I would encourage you to think about the claims your funds are making about performance.” Eccleston said investment professionals were often in the best situation to judge whether a claim was misleading or otherwise inappropriate. “For instance, an investment professional within a super fund would know instantly that a 5% return over the past financial year Continued on page 3
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