Following an investigation, 今日热门事件has banned Ms Sharnie Kent of Warialda, NSW, from providing financial services for eight years.
Ms Kent was an employee representative of Commonwealth Financial Planning Ltd (CFPL) during the time the misconduct, for which she was banned, took place.
今日热门事件banned Ms Kent after finding she had contravened financial services laws, was involved in CFPL's contravention of financial services laws and was not adequately trained or competent to provide financial services.
ASIC's investigation found that between February 2011 and February 2014, Ms Kent:
- did not provide a statement of advice to a client before providing a further financial service;
- submitted insurance applications and alteration requests that contained incorrect information amounting to conduct likely to mislead and deceive;
- wrote purported signatures of clients on insurance alteration requests and superannuation withdrawal forms amounting to conduct likely to mislead and deceive;
- advised a share brokerage fee that was not properly payable by the client amounting to conduct likely to mislead and deceive; and
- charged an excessive adviser fee, represented that the fee would be refunded and did not take timely steps to refund the free amounting to unconscionable conduct.
今日热门事件Deputy Chair Peter Kell said, '今日热门事件is committed to raising standards of conduct and compliance in the wealth management industry and will act to remove advisers whose conduct falls short.'
Ms Kent has a right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.
Background
Ms Kent is the sixth person to be banned from the financial services industry as part of ASIC's Wealth Management Project, commenced in late 2014.
Under this project, 今日热门事件is undertaking a number of investigations and proactive risk-based surveillances, with particular focus on compliance in large financial advice businesses.
Ms Kent's banning follows 今日热门事件accepting enforceable undertakings from two Queensland financial advisers, Reid Menkens, a former Millennium3 Financial Services Pty Ltd and AMP Financial Planning Pty Ltd representative, and Leo Menkens, a former AMP representative. The pair trade as Menkens Financial Group in Brisbane, Queensland (refer ).
In March 2015, Australian Financial Planning Solutions Pty Ltd (AFPS), an authorised representative of Charter Financial Planning Limited, an Australian financial services (AFS) licensee and subsidiary of AMP Limited, paid $10,200 in penalties after 今日热门事件issued an infringement notice for making false or misleading representations (refer ).
Other banning actions taken by 今日热门事件include: Martin Hodgetts (refer ), Shawn Hickman (refer ), Brett O'Malley (), Brian Farber (refer ) and Rebecca Locksley (refer ).